Best xmas gift EVER

I'm think I can say with some certainty that Fay is intrigued by the bouncy tigger seat she got for xmas from her Aunt Mimi. The expressions she gives are priceless.

What I can say with full certainty is that her parents LOVE this gift. It is truly comical to see Fay kicking around in her little seat. And everytime she swings around and I see a little tail protruding from her butt, I just laugh.




(Sidenote: Fay slept 10.5 hours last night!!! We had a quick feed and she is still sleeping now, 1.5 hours later. Three weeks left until I return to work. This would be a great sleep schedule for me. Keep it up Fay!)

Happy 3 month birthday to Fay!

Today Fay turns three months old. I thought I would write down what she is like at this age. Three months is a pretty fun age (compared to 2 months, 1 month and birth). The most fun of course are the smiles. Fay smiles at me when I smile at her. It feels like we are finally communicating. And she makes cute little talking sounds when I'm talking to her. I did manage to get one little laugh out of her. But is was short and not repeatable! I was pursing my lips and making little sounds by pushing air through them. Not totally hilarious which is why I think it was a brief laugh.

She is exploring things with her mouth now. Mostly she likes to suck on her fists, but when I put a lightweight item on her, like the little pooh bear holding his blanket, she'll suck on the blanket. I've tried to get her to do this with her little plastic ring rattle, but it seems too hard to grasp. I don't think she is that coordinated yet.

Fay can now enjoy her "gym" (the play mat with all the stuffed animals hanging from above). Just a couple weeks ago I put her in it, and she was sorta oblivious to it. Now she looks at the animals and will shoot out an arm occasionally to touch one. Again, not a lot of coordination, but definitely more interest.

Fay continues to love the boob and to love to sleep in the carrier. I literally cannot get her to stay awake if I put her in the carrier. I would like for her to see the world, but alas, she conks out on our walks. I'm guessing it has something to do with the cold as well. I think it is more comfortable to burrow into my chest when its cold out than to look around and get the wind on your face.

She's not sleeping consistently. Her long stretch is anywhere from 5 to 9 hours, followed by 2-3 hour stretches. Of course this worries me a little with my return to work looming. But I'm hoping she will mature some over the next month.

Fay has rolled over from her tummy to her back twice now. That was a couple weeks ago and she hasn't done it since. So it may have been a fluke! Still, she is very good on her tummy. She lifts her head up high and kicks out with her feet. She'll be crawling no time ;)

Also, several weeks ago, her tummy discomfort stopped. For the first couple months of her life she would get squirmy and obviously uncomfortable about 5 minutes after a feeding. This tended to make nighttime feedings very long because she could not go back to sleep until she had gotten through this digestion period. Now, there is no sigh of discomfort, and nighttime feedings last about 20 minutes after which she falls asleep without a peep.

More on sleep

I know, I know, the sleep topic is getting boring, if not obsessive! I tried the modified crib sleeping last night and it was a winner! 1) I propped up the mattress by putting a towel underneath it. 2) I used a sleep positioner to keep Fay's arms nice and close to her. 3) I put a boppy pillow near her feet so her feet are cozy as well. Basically, its like having her car seat in the crib! So cozy! With this arrangement she slept 7 hours straight last night 8pm-3am and then fed and slept another 3. Little by little I can begin to remove pieces of this setup until she is comfy in her crib. Right now, I'm just glad I found something she likes that involves a crib.

From car seat to crib

Well, its confirmed, again. Fay does not like to sleep in her crib. Now that we are done traveling, I decided to try to get Fay to sleep in her crib for nighttime and for naps. The first night, Tuesday, she slept for 5 hours in the crib but then woke up for a feeding and only slept for 2 hours after that. We ended up on the couch together to get some early morning sleep together.

Yesterday she seemed overly cranky between naps and would only nap for 45 min in the crib. She crashed for a long nap in the afternoon in the Baby Bjorn. After 3 hours I woke her up so that she would sleep at night.

Last night did not go well. Fay slept for about 3 hours, then 2.5, then 1.5 and then couch with mommy. She will go down pretty easily, but she gets woken up more frequently and won't put herself back to sleep.

She had another 45 min nap this morning after which she was clearly still tired, and cranky. So I put her down for a nap at 11:25 in the car seat and she is still sleeping almost 3 hours later. She must be tired!! Poor thing.

So I did some reading on this long thread of moms who want to know if it is ok that their babies only sleep in car seats and how to transition them to the crib. There is a large range of ages when these moms were able to successfully week the babies from the car seat. The general claim is that the baby must feel cozier or has reflux and feels more comfortable sleeping at an incline. Some good suggestions to make the crib seem more like the car seat are to elevate it with towels under the mattress, and/or use a sleep positioner. I have one of those, so I think I will try it for this afternoon's nap or for tonight's sleep. Then I can try to gradually decrease the incline to see if she will sleep flat.

I don't think I'm going to push it hard core though. I don't like it when she is not rested well. She is cranky and clearly uncomfortable.

Mpls trip

Fay and I have just returned from a long weekend in Minneapolis. Fay was especially excited to meet her cousins Maddie, Natalie and Lauren



We spent Friday evening visiting with the cousins, Aunt Mimi and Grandpa Lowe at Mimi's house. The girls were curious about what Fay could do...."can she crawl? does she use a high chair?" they asked. Fay's biggest accomplishment to date is eye contact, cooing and smiling. Oh and she loves to be held. So all the girls took turns holding Fay. She looks much bigger when placed in an eleven year old's arms



Aunt Mimi got in some necessary cuddle time and was able to pass on some wisdom after having 3 babies of her own.



Saturday and Sunday were spent at Nana's house, visiting with Nana and Gumpa and entertaining friends.



On Saturday 4 of my high school friends came by. And baby Ruby attended as well. We visited all afternoon while my mom fed us with Pizza and snacks. As a new mom who is usually stressed out just trying to get a shower in the morning, I felt totally pampered having food prepared for me allowing me to just sit and chat with friends. I had such a fun afternoon catching up. I do so love my Mpls friends.



On Sunday we had more friends and more food. My mom cooked a little brunch and Penny, Jeanne, and Shelley stopped by along with their toddlers. Also, my cousin Jackie was able to stop in and meet Fay. It was another fun afternoon. Though! it was not quite as relaxed as Saturday. Add four toddlers into the mix and the energy level gets quite a bit higher. And two of the toddlers are twins who love to fight over everything -- including who gets to wear which coat upon leaving. :) Shelley is in the super mom category.



After returning from Mpls Fay slept a whopping 9.5 hours last night. Granted, she did not get much sleep while traveling home on the plane. For some reason she was restless. When she finally crashed at 8:30pm, she slept until 6AM. AMAZING!

baby does not equal consistency

So, I only had one night of the 7 hour sleep. After that, it was 6 hours and then 5. It could be due to that little cold she had which is still tapering off. Or it could be due to the fact that she is a baby. :) Tomorrow we leave for Minneapolis for a long weekend. Hopefully Fay will travel well, sleep well and not catch another cold. Even I have trouble staying healthy during plane travel.

The fabled Seven Hour Stretch

When we were in Florida with Ryan's family over the holidays we left Fay with her grandparents for New Years Eve -- for the entire night. It was during this night that Fay decided to sleep for 7 hours straight for Grandma. Or so Grandma told us. Once we returned to NYC Fay was not sleeping more than 5 hours for her longest stretch. AND the 5 hours was followed by 1.5 hours segments. Not a good night's sleep for mom.

I think little Fay caught a little cold on her trip to Florida and that was causing her not to sleep well once we returned. It wasn't a bad cold, but enough to wake her up frequently during the night.

THEN! all of a sudden, last night, my little star of a sleeper returned. She slept SEVEN hours straight, followed by a brief 1/2 hour feeding and then another 4 hours of sleep. WOW! With that schedule I could almost go to bed at a regular adult time. (For the past week I've been going to bed at 8 or 9 to catch as many zzzzs as possible)

We are heading to Mpls on Friday for a long weekend so Fay can meet her cousins, grandpa and Gumpa (Ron). I wanted this trip to happen sooner than later so when we return to nyc we can work on a consistent sleep schedule (not rigid, but fairly predictable). Right now she is still sleeping in her carseat (oh my!) instead of the crib. So we would like to move her to the crib asap.

We actually started putting Fay in the crib during the first 3 or so weeks of her life. But then something happened -- perhaps the Friend's Thanksgiving weekend where we noticed she was sleeping for longer stretches in the car seat. I chalked it up to the carseat being set at a slight incline (more comfortable that flat on the back), and the carseat being small and cozy. When Fay kicks out in the carseat she meets with resistance which is more similar to being in the womb.

But the time has come for the crib, because if we are going to expect her to sleep through the night we have to get her in the crib first. Anyway, that is the next little goal. She usually takes her hour long morning nap in the crib and does pretty well. So at this point I don't expect it to be a big deal (fingers crossed!)

xmas vacation and eye contact!

Fay, Ryan and I just returned from a wonderful xmas vacation with Ryan's family in Ft. Lauderdale. We took a slew of photos as well as some video. My favorite photo is of Fay in a little beach bonnet and suit.

We spent the first week in a condo in Ft. Lauderdale, not too far from Uncle Andy's condo. Fay celebrated her first xmas by eating and sleeping. Oh and by participating in many photo shoots.



Then we took a car trip up to New Smyrna to stay at Ryan's grandma's condo. We visited with Ryan's Great Aunt Betty while we were there. That would be Fay's Great-Great Aunt Betty!

At dinner in New Smyrna


We learned quickly that Fay does not like long car rides. Living in NYC, we haven't had to deal with cars much. And I have always heard that babies LOVE car rides. Granted, the rides went a little smoother once I learned to bring a bottle of milk along, but Fay still let us know that she'd rather be held than sit in a car seat.



We finished off the week with babysitting duty for the grandparents and a night on the town in Miami for the new parents. I managed to get a cold during the last few days of vacation, so my big night out was not as exhilarating as I had hoped for. But I still had a good time popping cold medication and having a few drinks. Ryan and I saw some great jazz and finished up the year on the beach, celebrating with a great mix of party-goers, families and beach bums. Great people watching (not to mention the fireworks).

The weather was glorious the entire week. So we got a lot of beach time and golf time. Fay really wanted to watch her daddy golf. But apparently there are age restrictions on who can ride in the golf carts. So Fay may not be able to see daddy golf until her 5th birthday.

The highlights of the week would be seeing Fay "swim" for the first time. When put on her tummy she knows how to lift her heavy head up and out of the water. We think she is a natural swimmer. She also gave some very cute kicks that looked like swimming.



Also, Fay started giving consistent eye contact and smiles. There was a tease of this before the vacation but nothing really you could count on.

Smiles for Uncle Andy

Now, Fay looks at you when she notices you and will smile several times a day. Very cute! And very rewarding for mom to feel that Fay now knows who I am (previously known only as the food source).

(You can see all the vacation photos in the Flickr set here: Vacation Set)