15-19 Wonder Week

We're finally out of this (bigtime) developmental leap. During this one, she learned to perceive events in sequences. That means she can do things that require more than one action. She can also understand the different actions or events involved in activities.

BODY CONTROL

• Starts moving virtually every part of her body as soon as she is put on the floor. (she's always been an excellent wiggler)
• Rolls over from his back onto her tummy.
• Rolls over from his tummy onto her back. (I think she can do this, but she doesn't do it nearly as often as from back to tummy)
• Is able to fully stretch his arms when lying on her tummy.
• Lifts her bottom and attempts to push off; does not succeed.
• Raises himself onto her hands and feet when lying on her tummy, then tries to move forward; does not succeed.
• Attempts to crawl; manages to slide forward and backward. (often turns herself in a circle)
• Supports herself with forearms, and raises upper half of her body.
• Sits up straight (all by herself) when leaning against you.
• Attempts to sit up straight when she's by herself and briefly succeeds by leaning on her forearms and bringing her head forward.
• Remains upright in high chair with cushions for support.
• Enjoys moving her mouth - puckers her lips in a variety of ways, sticks her tongue out.

GRABBING, TOUCHING, AND FEELING

• Succeeds in grabbing objects.
• Grabs things with either hand.
• Is able to grab an object with either hand if it comes into contact with the object, even if she is not looking at it. (I think she can do this)
•  Is able to pass objects between hands.
• Sticks your hand in her mouth.
• Touches or sticks her hands in your mouth as you talk.
• Sticks objects in his mouth to feel and bite them. (EVERYTHING)
• Is able to pull a cloth from his face by himself, slowly at first.
• Recognizes a toy or other familiar object, even if it is partially covered by something; will soon give up unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the toy.
• Tries shaking a plaything.
• Tries banging a plaything on a tabletop. (on her highchair tray)
• Deliberately throws a plaything on the floor.
• Tries grabbing things just out of reach.
• Tries to play with an activity center.
• Understands the purpose of a particular toy; for example, he will dial his toy telephone.
• Studies objects closely; he is especially interested in minute details of toys, hands, and mouths.

WATCHING

• Stares in fascination at repetitive activities, such as jumping up and down, slicing bread, or brushing hair.
• Stares in fascination at the movements of your lips and tongue when you are talking.
• Searches for you and is able to turn around to do this.
• Looks for a plaything that is partially hidden.
• Reacts to his own reflection in mirror; he is either scared or laughs.
• Holds a book in her hands and stares at pictures.

LISTENING

• Listens intently to sounds coming from your lips.
• Responds to her own name.
• Is now able to distinguish one particular sound in a medley of different sounds, so responds to his own name even if there are background noises.
• Genuinely understands one or more words; for example, he looks at his teddy bear if asked "Where's your teddy bear?" (won't respond correctly if the toy is not in its usual place)
• Will respond appropriately to an approving or scolding voice.
• Recognizes the opening bars of a song.

TALKING

• Makes new sounds, using her lips and tongue: ffft-ffft-ffft, vvvvv, zzzzz, sssss, brrrr, arrr, rrr, grrrr, prrrr. This rrr is known as the "lip r." Your baby may particularly like to do this with food in her mouth!
• Uses consonants: d, b, l, m
• Babbles. Utters first "words": mommom, dada, abba, hadahada, baba, tata
• Makes noises when yawning and is aware of these noises.

BODY LANGUAGE

• Stetches her arms out to be picked up.
• Smacks her lips when hungry; waves arms and legs.
• Opens his mouth and moves his face towards food and drink.
• "Spits" when she's had enough to eat.
• Pushes the bottle or breast away when she has had enough.
• Turns away from the feeding of her own accord when full.

OTHER SKILLS

• May exaggerate his actions; for example, when you respond to his coughing, he will cough again, then laugh.
• Gets grumpy when becoming impatient.
• Screams if he fails to do what she seems to be trying to do.
• Has one special cuddly toy, such as a blanket.

Magic Sleep Suit

So one of the ladies in my mom's group posted that she'd bought one of these sleep suits. She'd read about it on a blog (which she also posted and which I also read). She said it was working great, so I searched Craigslist and found one for $20. I picked it up yesterday and washed it this morning.

We have the pink one.

First off, the sucker takes a long time to dry! It's a layer of fleece on the outside, then some sort of foam, then a cotton layer inside. The fleece dried really quickly (was totally dry when I took it out of the dryer), but the cotton was still very wet. I turned it inside-out and hung it to dry for most of today.

I have the 6-9 month suit. Seemed like a good idea since Sterling is almost 6 months (and that was the one that the person on Craigslist had)... but the lower weight limit for the suit is 18lbs. Sterling is swimming in it. Her little feet don't poke out the bottom of the leg holes. At least she'll be able to wear it for a while.

Sterling was cranky this evening due to lack of sleep. I nursed her to sleep, then tried to pop her off the boob, and she woke up. I nursed her to sleep again, tried to pop her off, and she woke up again. I decided that I might as well give the sleep suit a try. She was exhausted, could hardly hold her eyes open, but refused to go to sleep. I stuck her in the suit and gave her the new wubbanub giraffe pacifier that came in the mail yesterday. She suck-suck-sucked and fell right to sleep. After a few minutes, she woke up because she'd lost her binky. I stuck it back in, she suck-suck-sucked, and fell asleep again.

I am a wubbanub giraffe pacifier. Aren't I cute?

She was in bed by 9 and has been asleep since the second round of suck-suck-suck-sleeping. I'm calling it a success so far. Typically, she wakes up about ever 45 minutes.

She looks really cute in her new suit. It makes her look like Maggie Simpson in her snowsuit. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow when it's lighter in the bedroom.

Carrots

Yesterday, we gave Sterling a cooked round of carrot (cut in half into two semi-circles so she wouldn't choke on it). She actually appeared to swallow about 1/4 of a carrot.

Today, Mike found it in her diaper. Apparently her carrot digestive processes don't quite work yet.

Bedtime Fail

Today's sleeping didn't go well. Two 30 minute naps in the car only. She was exhausted by dinner and I decided to move bedtime forwards to 7:30 and we were in bed before 8. Then, she wouldn't fall asleep. And wouldn't fall asleep. And wouldn't fall asleep. She started crying and fussing, didn't want to nurse, wouldn't go to sleep. She wanted her gums rubbed hard; I think she might be starting to teeth seriously.

Finally, I fed her a last little bit of milk, she agreed to nurse and conked out in the rocking chair while being held at about 9:30. I laid her in the bed and she's now fast asleep. 

On another positive note, I sold another set of diapers. I had brought up more bins of diapers from the basement and found the rest of my Econobum covers. I also sold two extra wetbags I had from the coop. $50 bonus.

Bedtime, day 3

Sterling took two 30 minute naps today. By the end of the day, she was a cranky wreck. I decided to put her to bed at 8:00. We took a bath, which involved some good splashing, then read two books. We turned on the night-night music and did some nursing and she's finally asleep. Nursing to sleep is a habit that we'll eventually need to break, but I'm hoping that as she becomes more accustomed to her bedtime routine, we can get her away from it. If not, I'll just put her to bed by nursing her until she's 3. Hopefully not.

The books say that she needs to learn to put herself to sleep. I'm still working on that one. One thing at a time - we're getting a set bedtime (8:00 right now, moving towards 7:00 after we have the routine set) and a bedtime routine. Then I'll work on getting her to fall asleep without nursing her to sleep.

Diapers sold!

I'm starting to get rid of some of the excess accumulated diapers. So far, I've sold:
-5 newborn Kushies AIOs - $20 (and traded for 3 covers: 1 with elephants and 2 BG Flips, all of which I like)
-gDiapers - $100 (I was looking back at old blog posts and I think I only paid $50, which rocks)
-Econobums - $80 (I got them on some sort of mega sale, so I think I may have also made money here)

This is good because I've already bought *more* diapers through a co-op. They were very cheap and I've gotten some already that I really like. I'm not sure how much I'll like the others, but if I don't end up liking them I'll sell them brand new. They're pocket diapers and I feel like S has gotten a rash from some of the other pockets that we have (BumGenius and FuzzyBunz) when we use them frequently.

Sleeping like a baby

Sterling is in a no-napping phase, which made me decide that we need to start getting some sleep routines going to help her figure out when she's supposed to sleep. Tonight was my first real attempt. Mike gave her a bath, then I read her a story (which wasn't too popular, although she did try to eat the book briefly), then I turned the light off and turned on her new sleep music on my old iPhone. I nursed her until she was very sleepy, then tried to pop her off the boob. Nuh-uh. I let her latch back on, waited again, popped her off, nuh-uh. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat again, but this time when I popped her off I moved back away from her. She settled right down and is now napping in the bed. The goal was to get her to sleep in the cosleeper, but I think the bed is a good compromise.

It got me thinking about all the time I've spent sleeping with Sterling so far in her life.

When she was just born, I was petrified that she was going to stop breathing. I spent the first night thinking that one of us (me or Mike) should be awake with her the whole time. We ended up both falling asleep and then sleeping for like 6 hours because my nursing alarm didn't wake me up enough. She slept that night mostly on my chest, I think.

She seemed to sleep better when she was partly upright, back when she was a tiny newborn. I spent a number of nights on the couch propped up with pillows with her on my chest at her favorite angle. I did that in the bed as well. I would prop myself partly up with pillows so that her head was higher than her feet when she was asleep on my chest. I never rolled over and tipped her off.

I've always been a side-sleeper. I don't sleep well on my back normally, so I started rolling her off my chest to sleep on my arm when we would wake up to nurse the first time. She didn't seem to mind.

I slept several nights with her on my chest sleeping in the recliner. We would leave the overhead LED Christmas lights on, which makes it bright enough to see. It was really a convenient way to sleep before I learned to nurse laying on my side. All I had to do was sit the recliner up, I didn't have to mess with pillows behind me and a boppy under the baby and a pillow under my elbow to keep her in position.

Sometimes Mike wanted to sleep with her. He'd lay on the couch and lay her sideways across his chest. Early on, I was very afraid that he would roll onto her or that she would slide down and suffocate in the couch cushions. When he fell asleep with her like that, I would lay awake on the other couch and wait for her to make a noise so I could go retrieve her and give her a nurse. He never squished her and I eventually got over it.

It's amazing how fuzzy and faded these memories are already. I put it down to sleep deprivation, even though Sterling has always been a pretty good night sleeper. The newborn days just sort of blend together into a big fuzzy mishmash of baby stuff.

Tiny Toes

I meant to post a while back when Sterling discovered her toes. I didn't quite get to it. She can now get them into her mouth when she's not wearing a diaper (cloth diapers are pretty bulky and prevent her from wiggling as freely as she might like).

Belated 4 month pictures

I've been taking pictures every month because I have these month stickers. I've been a little slow getting the 4 month pictures done. I finally managed to do it today. Cutest baby ever.