My sweet little girl is now close to 15 pounds and is close to 25 inches long. At our last doctors appointment they told me that she's longer than average (she definitely does not get that from me... that's all from daddy). She loves to smile, make noises, laugh, shriek out these really loud sounds, blow spit bubbles, grab her feet, and chew on every thing. I'm pretty certain the teething era has begun. We are using an amber teething necklace, but so far the only benefit I can see is that she drools a little less when she's wearing it. She can roll from her belly to her back and half way from her back to her belly. She hates doing "tummy time" but will do it for about two minutes at a time. Speaking of tummy time- I did a little research about it and some people don't think babies should do tummy time until they can turn over to their tummy on their own. I'm not sure, but it does make me feel better about not doing tummy time as often as people say you should. She loves to be held or worn in the Baby K'Tan or the Ergo and that is pretty much the only way I can get any thing done around the house is to wear her. I don't mind though... she will only be little for a little while.
We battled an awful diaper rash for a whole month. She had thrush, the doctor treated her and not me, so it came back. Then my midwife prescribed stuff to treat me and I treated the baby as well, so after 4 weeks we finally kicked the yeast rash. Ugh... so not fun! And so expensive using disposable diapers for a whole month! We are back in our cloth diapers now and I've been using coconut oil to help keep the yeast from returning.
Betsy Grace was dedicated at church in March. I was super nervous that she would freak out when the pastor held her (she went through a little phase where any time someone other than mommy or daddy held her she would cry) but she did great! My godson, Keegan, also got dedicated on the same day.
She was sleeping really great for a while (go to bed at 10pm, wake up to nurse at 3am, again at 6am, and then we'd sleep until 9am) but when the teething began our sleeping changed as well. For about two weeks we were getting up at 1am, 3am, 5am, and then waking up at 8am. I'm glad to say that has passed (for now, I know that nothing is permanent in terms of sleep for a baby). We are back to our old routine of going to bed at 10, nurse at 3am and 6am, and wake up for the day at 8ish. Everyone asks, "Is she sleeping through the night yet?" No and that is totally fine with me. Breast milk is digested in less than 2 hours so I don't expect her to go 8 hours without eating. She's still sleeping in bed with us and probably will for a while. I've tried letting her sleep on her own but it just isn't happening yet. She will fall asleep in my arms and the second that I set her down in her pack-n-play or crib she wakes right up. Michael has tried to do it as well, but with no luck. Occasionally she will nap in her crib but I think that has only happened three or four times. I don't mind snuggling with her at night. I'm pretty positive I'm never going to look back and say "man, I wish I had let my tiny little baby sleep all alone". I sleep in comfort with the person I love next to me every night, why should I deprive her of the same thing?
I turned in my resignation to work for next year which was a little scary but exciting at the same time. I've always said I wanted to stay home with my kids but it is still a little scary to realize that you no longer have a job. I'm so glad that I took an extended leave for the rest of this school year because I can not imagine how hard it would be to leave her to go back to work. I miss my teacher friends, but I certainly don't miss all the drama and dealing with 18 (or more) kiddos. I used to get really bad Sunday night depression/anxiety knowing I had to go to work the next day, but I no longer experience that. Now I have a hard time keeping track of what day it is :) I did take the baby with me to visit my class on their field trip to Lake Eola. The kids were cute and super excited to see me and the baby, but I think I may have confused them. So many of them asked me if I was going to stay with them and be back in the classroom with them. I'll go back to say goodbye on the last day of school.
I feel like everyone I know is pregnant right now.... seriously, eight of my friends are expecting little ones in the next three months. I have five baby showers to go to this month! Little miss Betsy Grace will have lots of little playmates running around in a few months. Well, that's about all that has been going on around here. Hopefully it won't be another two months until I update again! :)
