Nanny found!

So I am happy to report that I have ended my nanny search. After about 3 weeks of interviews I hired the 2nd person I interviewed. Her name is Mandy. I guess its hard to believe that you've found THE ONE when its so early in the process. I kept trying to find a person comparable so I would have two people to choose between, but I never really did. I found a few people that were perfectly qualified and would've probably been fine nannies. But I really like Mandy head and tails above the rest. Apparently she likes us too. She said that she was holding off on answering a couple other offers, waiting to see if we would come through with an offer. So I'm happy we both found each other.

Seeking Nannies

Fay sitting in a Bumbo. What is a Bumbo? I believe it is a device for taking REALLY CUTE photos.

I haven't written in soooo long. This is mostly due to one thing. I've been spending all waking/napping (me awake, Fay napping) hours searching for a Nanny for Fay. I never anticipated it to be soooo exhausting. I think it is more difficult than I thought because I have such limited time to work on the search. I have to sneak in an email, reference check or phone interview when Fay is either napping or entertaining herself.

I've been using multiple resources -- friend's referrals, craigslist, and this site I found called sittercity. Before this week I had looked for two weeks and I had only found one nanny that I really liked. She doesn't have a ton of experience in the under 1 year ages. However, she is smart, kind, youthful, and was really good with Fay.

This week I've been really working the sittercity site. And I was getting pretty disappointed. The sitters on that site seem to be pretty young over all and not highly educated. Or if they are more educated, they seem to charge A LOT. But then I may be used to the lower rates charged by nyc nannies that prefer to be paid in cash.

But I had a really good reply today and I have two in person interviews tomorrow. If I find time to blog I will tell you how they went. One of the girls is from Argentina and one if from Ohio. I think I have a thing for midwesterners. :)

In the meantime we have taken some adorable photos of Fay. I guess that is mostly to her credit. Its hard to take a bad photo of her. Well except for in the early days. :)

A week ago we had one of Ryan's friends from work over with his wife and 8 month old boy. Damien is exactly 5 months older than Fay. They got along famously, except when Fay tried to steal Damien's mommy....



Fay had also been making some daring fashion choices lately. You know at that 3 month mark you have to start giving babies a little freedom to dress themselves and choose their own hairstyles. Fay is big into fashion Ts, jeans, and you guessed it, mullets.

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!