Chloe's thoughts

CV B L,IM M




F

fd FNJNJNJ G g F




jvjvkvjvj xjvjvytfreeeeeeeeeeeeeaAJVVytbbgtyitfvhftfyycfyfy






B


















VGHVHG N BJ J BJ H

!S GHN M BMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM N B NBBH BVJYJVJVBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBJVB VB HJBJJJJYBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBJYBBBBBBJBBBBBBBBFVXFRSEWE45WQ5WWWWWWW TYGNEXMDDDDDDDYBADSRGJBDFH BVJMHU BVJHKBVJMBVJJMVVVVVVV N EEUGGHDJ CV G HGY FT RD DB YG YGGTBFNFF UIGTU9O,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,DCFLMKS\DXHJJJJU8Y78II7YY7Y77IIIISAQAQawSAAAAX8HGY BY UBGYGGGYGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGVG JHBJHBJ BHJ B HMMASX423REDDGFSWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDGHJFBHOIHOH NB N N NN N N N NN N J78UJ8KUU8IKM88II8MUMKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKhu uuunhknnkkkkkkk;kpbohogy,.m,,.lioAA

Love Chloe

It says:
"So now that mommy finally got off the computer and let me take over, I can tell you about my day. It started with mommy waking me up at 4:00 am so she could take daddy to the airport for some sports medicine conference in Missouri. We got home around 6:00 am and mommy and I both fell asleep in her bed. I like it there because it it nice and soft. Auntie Tracy woke me up at 7:30 in the morning calling the house wanting to talk with mommy, which was ok by me because I wanted to get up anyways. I was tired of lying in bed and although it is really really fun poking mommy in the eyes, nose and mouth with my fingers, after 1/2 hour of doing it, it gets pretty boring. For breakfast I had some blueberry pancakes which I love to eat. Cadence came over again today, we had lots to talk about, but it is private stuff and you wouldn't understand. After lunch I had to go to the doctor's office to get my 9 month checkup. Yay this month I didn't have to get any shots, but they did take blood from my finger and that really hurt. Cadence was nice, she didn't laugh at me when I cried, she is my best friend. So I have gone down in my weight, now at 75th % and am steady in my height percentile at 90th %. I am going to be a tall girl when I grow up my mommy says. Since daddy is gone, it is pretty quiet around here and after dinner, my mommy and I will watch a movie and then go to bed. It doesn't sound like all that much fun, but I get to have some good cuddling time in. I like to cuddle with my mommy. You should try it sometime....when I am not around of course. Well mommy says it is dinner time so I have to go now. I miss everyone and hope to see you all really soon. Oh and mommy will post some pictures of me really soon she says.

Love Chloe

(Chloe really did write this herself. She loves typing on the keyboard like her mommy so when I let her type, she went to town. Now don't think that she is a genius and wrote this all out in one piece. There were a lot of other random keys that were hit and programs were shut down because of her, but she really really enjoys playing with the keys. )

91 degrees outside!!!

Since it was so incredibly hot on Saturday, a few of the moms in my mom's group got together with our families and had a BBQ. The kids loved the little water park that I got and we liked it too. It was short enough on the sides that the kids could get in the cool water when they wanted to and they could get out when they were done all on their own.

So Chloe had her first kiss this day as well. Caleb went in for the kiss and she liked it. I think by the time we got our cameras out, they had kissed like 5 times. Don't get your hopes up though, Caleb kisses everyone.

While us girls watched the kids play and gossiped, the guys played a game of boccie ball.It was a good way for them to break the ice. They also got out rock band and played that until it was time to go home.

We had a Delicious dinner with chicken, ribs, hamburgers, fruit salad, veggies, pasta salad, and more. Oh it was so nice, it was just what I needed. A group of friends getting together on a hot day to let their kids play in the water, husbands talking about everything under the sun and us girls just hanging out playing with the kids and having a good conversation. I miss my friends up in Washington that used to get together with us and have these fun events. I am so glad that I have found it down here.

Second night

OK so I am a big sucker when it comes to my baby.

She went to sleep last night while I was watching a movie. It was probably around 8ish. I was able to change her diaper and put her in her crib without her waking up at all what so ever. I was so happy. I thought "man this is easy!"...but I was wrong. Around 9:30 she woke up screaming! not just crying that whimper cry of I am still tired but I just woke up cry. It was a full out screaming cry. I did the "wait 10 minutes" thing that my sister is making me do, but even Brett was feeling bad about her crying like that. So I wimped out and got her up.

The poor thing has been having really hard stools lately, hard enough that she cries when she is going to the bathroom. (yes I am giving her water, prunes, prune juice and cutting back on things like crackers and high iron foods) Well it ends up that she pushed out another really big and hard stool. SO no wonder she was crying like that. Anyways, we let her stay up with us for a little while then Chloe and I went to bed together. She fell asleep in her co-sleeper all by herself. No crying or anything. She just played with her baby doll until she just fell asleep. And the most wonderful part was that she didn't wake up until around 5 to nurse, went back to sleep and woke up for the day at 8:30. Oh it was nice to get some sleep.

So I know I didn't go through with my original plan. I will eventually get there. I took a few steps back and one sideways and now I am on a different path. My goal is to now get her to sleep through the night, no matter what time she goes down officially or where she sleeps. I just want her to sleep for like 5 - 7 hours without nursing which I know she is capable of doing. When we get that down, then we will work on a set bedtime. I think baby steps will work better in our situation.

Texas and Washington

A few weeks back, Brett went down to Dallas Texas for Convocation. It is a huge conference that is put on by the D.O.'s all over the country. There, the students go to lectures to learn new and exciting things about the specialties of D.O. practices.

Brett learned some new manipulation techniques and was updated on current medical issues. BUT I think the real reason they have this convocation is so that everyone can get together and have fun. It was really good for Brett to go. He made a lot of contacts with other D.O's that already have practices set up. He and the group of friends he went with were taken out every night by Touro Alumni to various upscale bars and night clubs like the Ghost bar at the "W" hotel. Everything was paid for by these doctors, so that was a relief to me when I heard about Brett's nightly events.

But enough about Brett.

Since he left me and went to Texas for a few days, I decided to go up to Washington and see some family. I was trying to make it a relaxing time for Chloe and more importantly, myself, so I didn't really tell anybody that I was coming, and it was also last minute that I decided to go.

But I was barely able to relax. It all started with the flight being delayed 2 hours, so instead of getting in around 9pm, I got in about 11:30pm. I was in the airport for a good 5 hours with just me and my baby. While I was in Washington, I had a doctors appointment, my mom and I went shopping, we had dinner with my parent's friends, my mom and I got much needed massages, did some more shopping, stopped by my father in law's work and surprised him with a visit, saw one of my friends and hung out with her on her birthday, went to my friend's daughter's 4Th birthday party, ate some good food, had to deal with the DMV and getting my tabs renewed while the car was in California, went over to my in-laws house for a few hours so they could play with Chloe,and I am pretty sure there were a few more things that I did while I was there.

Chloe also decided that she didn't want to sleep in the big scary different crib while we were at my parents house. So every night I had her in bed with me, which meant that I barely slept. She kept rolling over towards me and by morning, I was in a weird twisted position on the edge of the bed trying not to roll onto her and trying not to roll off the bed. And yes I did keep pushing her back onto her side of the bed.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip for the both of us. Brett went to a nice and warm sunny state of Texas, and I went to the snowy state of Washington. Oh and I forgot to take many pictures while I was in Washington, and Brett didn't have a camera. So here are the few pictures I ended up with. I hope you enjoy them!

Where does the time go?

Since I have been watching Cadence I have found that I have very little time to myself to get things done. Like blogging for instance. Right now I am able to post some stuff because for once, both girls are down for their nap and I am avoiding doing chores around the house,showering,eating lunch, those kinds of things. There will be other times to do those.

So here are some updates. Chloe is rolling all over the place. She has even started scooting around on her butt when she is sitting, but won't get very far, or go very fast but she is able to move that way. She is still refusing to crawl. I am trying some baby yoga moves with her on helping her crawl, but she would rather just roll over and play with toys than work on her yoga moves.

I have been told that she is getting her upper teeth. Her upper gums looked swollen and white and she was really fussy...especially at night and at nap time. Tylenol would soothe her, she chewed on everything and drooling picked up a bit more. It has been 6 days now and nothing has shown up. She is no longer fussy, not drooling so much, and not chewing on everything in site so I think that they decided to wait a little longer before coming out. (I am very happy for that decision.)

Chloe is also trying really hard to talk. She has said de dee to Brett. She has said gapa to my dad and laughs every time I say "mama" to her. I doubt that she will be saying that anytime soon. When she is "talking" it seems like she is forming her own little words. It is not longer baby babbles coming out of her mouth. It is very cute and darling to watch and hear.

Clapping her hands is the newest trick that she has learned. She doesn't do it all the time, but when she does do it, you can see that she is so excited that she is clapping. I think she gets a kick out of our reaction to her clapping.

So those are the things that Chloe is up to these days.

Results

So it went pretty well. Chloe went down around 8:30, woke up at 9:00 and I successfully put her back to sleep within one minute! Then she woke up at around 11:30 to nurse, which was ok because I needed her to nurse so I could get comfortable enough to sleep. She again woke up at 3am and I tried to comfort her but she was awake. So I changed her diaper, sang her a few lullabies again and put her back in her crib and let her play with a stuffed animal. She didn't cry at all! She eventually fell asleep again around 4ish. I of course did not get much sleep, but I am expecting that. She woke up again around 7:00 to nurse and I was not ready to get up since I got little to no sleep last night, so I brought her into my bed, nursed her and we both slept until 9:30. It was very nice.

So we will have to see how tonight goes.

First night

Ok so I know that a lot of moms have gotten this down already. I used to have it down until the house got cold and we brought baby into our room to sleep. Now the "fight", "retraining", "willpower" must begin again.

What I am talking about is getting my baby to sleep in her own crib in her own room and hopefully through the night, or at least not having her wake up every 2 hours to nurse and having me give into it.

So tonight we did our new bedtime routine, which I have not done since she was 3 months old. (She is now 8 months). We got her into her pj's, brushed her teeth, read 3 bedtime stories, sang 4 lullabies, and I talked softly about our adventures together. And around 8:30 she went to sleep.

The norm for the past few weeks...months, has been I usually watch and see when she gets tired. Sometimes that can be as late as 11:00 at night!!! But I didn't want to have a screaming baby when I put her down, so I went by her schedule. Plus I am a night person anyways so I wasn't hurting at all. Then I would climb into MY bed and have her fall asleep next to me while I sang lullabies to her. After she fell asleep, I would then place her in the co-sleeper next to my bed. Then every 2 -4 hours she would nurse and she would usually return to her co-sleeper. Sometimes she would end up in bed with me.

Lately she has been going down for bed anywhere between 8:30 and 10:00pm. Not too bad I thought. But then she would wake up an hour into it and me being the "not so smart mommy" would pick her up and bring her out to play with me or have her watch me make Brett's lunch or whatever I happened to be doing at that time.

Long story short, I have to be tough now (Tracy and Brett are making me) and I have to leave my baby in her room at night after the initial bedtime routine. No going and getting her up, no turning on the lights, nothing but a soothing "it's nigh night time baby" give her a kiss and soothe her back to sleep. I know this is possible. The question I keep asking myself is, "do I have the strength to have my baby possibly (blood curdling) cry for me for a long period of time at night when I know that all it would take to get her to go back to sleep is to bring her into bed with me and either nurse her or just breathe in her ear holding onto her and she would go to sleep within 5 minutes"? The answer I have been told is YES.

So wish me luck. So far she has only woken up 1/2 hour into bedtime and I got her to go back to sleep with no problems. It has now been 2 hours. I think I should go to sleep myself.

Easter

For Easter this year we went down to visit Brett's Grandma and his aunts, uncles and cousins. The weather was perfect. I think it was in the high 80's while we were there if not a bit warmer. We were in Laguna Woods, a community, well I guess you can call it a city in Southern California dedicated to those who are 55 and older. (I told Brett that I want to live there some day!)

It was a very short visit, all we had was the weekend because Brett had to go to school on Monday. We took off at 2am and arrived at his grandma's house around 9:30am. We went to brunch at a really good Greek restaurant, and returned home to prepare for the guests. At 2pm the party started. All of the relatives arrived for our Easter party. The kids had an Easter egg hunt, Chloe had her own little one of course. We made her roll around the floor to locate her eggs filled with animal crackers.

It was really nice to see April, Randy, Gretchen, Pauline, and Laverne again. But it was even nicer to meet the other members of Brett's family. All of his mom's other brothers and their boys.

The day was well spent with the family.

Easter Sunday we went to church with his Grandma which was nice. It was a good service about who Jesus was and what he meant. Chloe did a really good job sitting through the service and I only had to leave for the last 20 minutes so I could get her to fall asleep without crying and disturbing the congregation.

After church we went to lunch at the Olive Garden, had wonderful food and conversations. When we got back to his Grandma's house, we left Chloe with his Grandma and took off for a walk along the river by her place. It was really nice and peaceful. I guess Chloe did fine with Grandma. When we got back from our walk, Chloe took her nap and that allowed Brett and I to take a nap as well. I didn't get much sleep this trip so the nap felt really good.

Chloe discovered that she really likes dogs, especially when they lick her.

We headed home after dinner and it was a long 6 hour drive and thankfully, like the ride down, Chloe slept the entire time.