New foods, Mexico edition

Verdolagas, papaya, chirimoya, platano macho, cake (Abuelita got it to her mouth as I was saying "nooooo"), every flavor agua de sabor we've come across (Abuelito, thanks) and several different ice creams (nieve, helado, paleta) (also mostly Abuelito). Oh and several kinds of fish too. Not to mention all sorts of arroz, frijoles, and corn-based items (tamal, tostadas, and innumerable tortillas).

9.5 months old.

sleep training and self-medication fail

We're trying to convince the guajolotita to sleep in her own bed. It's about 3 months now that she has slept primarily with us. In our bed. Besides affecting everyone's sleep - there are certain adult activities that she hinders. Like putting away the laundry. Seriously. All my stuff is in laundry baskets. I suppose getting a dresser would help too. But anyway - it all started when we went to visit my grandparents. We stayed over ONE night and all shared a king-size bed. Before that, she would start out in her crib and sometime between 2-5am I would bring her into our bed. But on this trip, it was the whole night together. (It was also her first bath in a real bathtub. I got in with her. It was super fun!) And ever since then. Sometimes she'll stay in her crib for a little while - between 20 min - 2hrs. Sometimes that means going and putting her back down several times in that short timeframe! Anyway, at 8 months old, and almost half her life in bed with us - it's getting ridiculous. She's either in the stroller or being held for naps. Otherwise, she naps for 30 minutes at most. (That's EXACTLY 30 minutes. You could set a timer by her.) Also, a babysitting episode with grandpa that may have involved an attempt by him to "cry it out" is prompting me to find a humane solution. And finally - she tolerates the crib less and less. And it's interfering with our sex life. Can't have that. So, with the long weekend here, we thought - let's try it. But here's the thing: I have a persistent cough. It's worse at night when the heat comes on. If I cough from the other room - she hears it and wakes up. Now she's getting it, so she's coughing too (only a very little bit, so far). Between the coughing and the expected amount of don't-wanna-be-in-the-crib waking, I slept less last night than any time since I was home on maternity leave. And then the stupid alarms went off because it was Thursday. Even though it's Thanksgiving. I have a mind to put it off. Again. But it's winter. She was sick for 5 weeks with one cold after another already. And then there was the constipation crisis (and it WAS a crisis. Awful.) and now this. Then we go on vacation to visit family and meet Abuelito. During which 3 weeks we will... all share a bed again. Argh. Fun, but then back to the real world and work in the morning. And learning to sleep in the crib again. Oh, the self-medication fail: I figured that due to breastfeeding I couldn't take anything for this cough, so I just grabbed some cough drops we already had and used those to try and get through the night. Then the next day I look it up on KellyMom and... menthol may cause a reduction in supply! And I ate 2 bags of coughdrops in 36 hrs! Argh!! So I send The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe to the store with a list of acceptable ingredients, take my dose after feeding her, and then notice... wait! This has menthol too! Argh!! We had a very nice Thanksgiving, so I will post this dated the day before to not sound like a holiday grouch.

Oh man this is it!

2 teeth poking through. Crawling as much as possible ("long" distances, like to the other side of the room still via army crawl instead). And now, this baby girl just pulled up to standing. Using the bottom rack of the dishwasher as I was loading it. Which is of course on wheels. I was watching closely and no mishaps... this time.

Guess who's getting teeth!

I think they've been on the way for a while, but I didn't realize till Sunday. Since I figured they've got to come in sometime, I stopped letting Baby Girl chew on my fingers for fun. But Sunday, even though she seems healthier (5 weeks of colds coming and going) she was so whiny and didn't want to be left alone for a second. So I gave her a knuckle to 'see' what mght be going on in there and sure enough it wasn't perfectly smooth anymore! I was able to peek during some laughing and you can just see some clearish looking slits below the surface.

The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe was away each day this weekend at a conference, so I texted him right away. I felt proud of my sweet girl - which is ridiculous because she's not actively doind anything, it's just happening to her.

Now writing about it I feel a little sad - she's getting to be a big girl!

P.S. she isn't drooling AT ALL. But she makes this face, where she scrunches up her face and mashes her fist or back of the wrist into her gums and sort of groans. She's been doing it for the last week or so, but really a lot over the weekend. I guess that's her teething indicator. No fever really - she's a touch warmer than her usual, like just-woke-up warm baby temperature but no actual fever.

On speaking and moving

Big girl only seems to work on one of those skills at a time. She stopped the pseudo-army crawl, but for a while there, I guess late July to mid-August, she was getting pretty chatty. If things were quiet, and she was just lying around, like for instance during a diaper change, she'd start talking at anyone or thing in the room. Not babbling, exactly - more like long groan-y noises with a conversational cadence. I'd ask her, "Yeah? What happened next?" and she'd reply with more of the same. We thought it was great.

Then she went silent. After a couple of days we checked with each other, and none of us, parents or caregivers, had heard a peep. Lots of giggles and laughs and occasional shrieks (and PLENTY of screams and cries) - but no more "conversation." However she was working hard at rolling over. At this point she rolled over about once a day, usually on accident, and she usually found it upsetting. Now in this new silence she became the rolling-over-est thing you ever saw. As soon as she was put on her tummy, she flipped onto her back. A few times, she even rolled from her back to her tummy. One time, with my sister, she did a whole 360 roll.

Then, the day before our housewarming party (yes, it'd been six months since we moved, but it took us that long to get a couch and dining table so guests could sit someplace), she started again. We were both home and instantly checked with each other. "Did you hear that! She talked! It's been so long!" We were pretty excited. The noises were a little bit different. However she made them less, and quit pretty soon.

Next, she began to sit reliably on her own, and then added back in a new kind of talking - she makes these funny whispery under-her-breath noises, sometimes while inhaling instead of exhaling.

Now, 3 weeks later, she can do all of these things:
- sit up
- get onto her belly without smacking her face on the floor
- "speak" under her breath
- cry when someone takes away the non-toy she is playing with (chewing on camera, etc.)
- I swear she's learning to pass a soccer ball with her hands.

Army crawl!!

Baby girl grabs tight to the play mat, braces against her elbows, and pulls her knees up her sides, then scoots her forearms out and does it again. She can make it two feet no problem, but usually she reaches the edge of the mat and doesn't go too much farther.

Tonight we are trying again with the non-boob sleeping. I've given her a bad habit of falling asleep at the nipple. She slept through the night 6-8 hours regularly at 3 months old, but now she never gets more than 4 hours without waking up for some nipple action - and usually it's more like just 2 hours. Poor thing looks like a zombie all the time (mama does too, but that's been true since before she was born). However she's not thrilled about her chupon (even though these Nuk ones she likes wayyyy more than the Gumdrop ones we originally got her).

I convinced Papi (The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe) to participate in the tiny sleep training - but baby girl knows he doesn't have boobs and is pretty mad when he picks her up at night! One night she cried in his arms for 30-40 min and sniffled for another 20 before falling asleep. Since then we have gone back to the boob - but right now he's giving it another go. She didn't completely lose it with anger, at least, and I think they will be asleep together in the glider in a few minutes.

Early signs of mobility

Baby girl's new favorite trick are mini-crunches. She reaches her arms and strains her head up off of whatever surface she's on, to the point that from lying flat she gets both shoulders up off the bad/changing pad/floor. If she's reclined, leaned against someone or a pillow, she can faceplant in under a second. Bathtimes are newly challenging/terrifying.

This combined with attempts to roll over starting 5 days ago serve as a reminder that we need to get our act together over here. Lead paint hazards, coins on the floor, who knows - we haven't worried about it too much because you can put her on her playmat and though she'll scream she can't move more than a foot or so.