Bridget Goes to the Dentist

On Thursday, I took Bridget to the dentist with me since our dental hygienist recommended I bring her in to see what it was all about before she has her first cleaning at 3 years old. In case anyone's wondering, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry states that you should bring children to the dentist for the first time once they get their first tooth, or when they turn 1, but our dentist didn't require that early of a visit. And I was OK with that - 1 year old seems really premature to me.

I'm always nervous about going to the dentist because they inevitably find something wrong with my teeth every time; but with Bridget in tow, it felt like a new adventure. As I pulled into the mall parking lot where our dentist is located, Bridget asked, "Is this the dentist?" Then she asked again as we walked into the mall food court and again upon entering the corridor that leads to the office.

From the moment we sat down in the waiting room and Bridget located a teddy bear and a Disney Junior magazine, I knew that this was going to be a positive experience for her. We didn't wait long before the dental hygienist called us back and immediately engaged Bridget in conversation and offered her different things to look at while she explained what she was doing during my cleaning. Bridget was very friendly and well behaved and answered each yes/no question she was asked with "No" or "Um I fink so." Haha. She only got a little rowdy and squealed loudly when she saw the motion light-up aquarium lamp thing with the Nemo fish swimming by.

As far as the dentist part went, the hygienist let Bridget put the suction (or Mr. Thirsty) in my mouth, and she also sprayed water and then put Mr. Thirsty in Bridget's mouth (after changing the tip of course). While she was in there, the hygienist also took a quick look at Bridget's teeth and let me know that she's still missing two molars. I couldn't tell if Mr. Thirsty was Bridget's favorite part or if it was sitting on my lap and taking a ride in the dentist chair, but she definitely didn't mind being there.

After Bridget picked out a couple silly bands from the toy treasure chest, we went back into the waiting room so that I could schedule our next appointments. And Bridget, with some outgoingness she certainly didn't get from me, peeked out into the waiting room and greeted the college-age girl waiting with a "Hi! What's your name?" and then introduced herself with her first and last name. So freakin' cute.

Yup, she'll definitely do fine in January when it's time for her real first dentist appointment. Let's just hope she gets her father's perfectly healthy teeth and not mine.

Potty Training Update

School picture

Hahahahha, yeah. About that. Bridget tends to be really good at something at first and then kind of regresses for awhile. She gets the skills back eventually, but that seems to be the pattern. Like counting. I swear she's been able to count to 12 before, but now she consistently gets stuck on 4. "One, two, three, nine, ah-yedden, sissty-nine." OK, I don't mind the counting thing because it's adorable that she goes from three to nine to eleven to sixty-nine randomly. And when she used to be able to get past five, she would say "chicken" for six and seven. Cute. Anyway. She'll get the counting thing back - we're working on it, as I'm sure they are in school - I'm not worried.

Potty training went about the same. She was all about it at first, and we'd reward her with lots of praise and then later with M&Ms and then later with Pez, trying to find new incentives. At first, she was all excited about her big girl underwear, but now she has no interest in any of it. She did go potty yesterday before her bath, but that was the first time in at least a week. I guess she does it at school sometimes, too, when the other kids are going potty.

The reason this came up again is that Bridget is moving to the 2-1/2-year room on Monday. The teacher came and talked to me yesterday and said that she's pretty hardcore with potty training right off the bat (my words, not hers). She goes with them to the bathroom for the first couple weeks, but then they have to go themselves. So now instead of sending Bridget to school in regular diapers, I have to make sure she has either Pull-ups or plastic training pants. She has one pair of those plastic diaper thingies, but she's never worn it. I think that's the route we're going to go, though. It seems like she would learn faster that way.

Now is definitely the time. Time to get Bridget potty trained. I have to admit, having professionals at daycare helping with the potty training thing does take some of the pressure off. We just have to be sure to reinforce it once she gets home. I'll have to ask her new teacher for tips if things don't go smoothly in the next couple weeks.

From my cousin's graduation party

Big Girl Bed - How the First Week Went

After I gave her pigtails, she wanted me to give her stuffed animals ponytails, too, and take pictures with them.

We've reached another milestone in our household.

Last Saturday evening (a week and a half ago now), we put Bridget in her crib for a time out*, and a couple minutes later, she walked on out of her bedroom with a pleasant look on her face like nothing had happened. I double-checked with my husband that he actually put her in her crib, which he had. At that moment, we realized it was time for what we had been putting off - converting Bridget's crib to a toddler bed. A few minutes later when Bridget successfully climbed into and back out of her crib, our suspicions were confirmed, and hubs immediately got his tools out and went to work on the bed. Right away, Bridget was a fan. She loved the fact that she could easily climb in and out without help. Things looked optimistic.

* That's not a recommended parenting method since "they say" the child will associate the bed with bad things instead of peaceful slumber, but it worked for us. Each kid is different, etc. etc.

The first few nights, against our better judgment, we let her climb into bed with us when she got up in the middle of the night. Halfway through the week, we started bringing her back to her own bed instead. Here's how her first week went:

Saturday night: Woke up at 4 AM and joined us in bed.
Sunday nap: Came out of her room three times before she actually went to sleep.
Sunday night: Slept in her bed all night.
Monday night: Woke up at 2 AM and joined us in bed.
Tuesday night: Woke up at 11 PM and joined us in bed.
Wednesday night: Slept in her bed all night after taking her back to bed twice in the middle of the night.
Thursday night: Slept in her bed all night without getting up.
Friday night: Woke up at least four times between 11 and 1:30, and we brought her back to her room each time. Then she slept the rest of the night in her bed.

So far, naps seem to be more difficult than bedtime with the exception of the one horrible night when she woke up probably six times. My husband and I have different recollections of what actually went down that night (I thought she got up four times; he insists it was six), but he did get up more often, so he's probably right. All things considered, though, and of course again with the exception of that one night, it's not too bad yet. Knock on wood. I will tentatively call the toddler bed conversion a success.

As far as other milestones go, we've started working a little more on potty training. I've begun using M&Ms as a reward (just one - is that too stingy?) for actually going, and Bridget's much more excited about trying to use the potty more although I think being fully out of diapers is still a while off yet.

Two-Year Stats

She just likes the frosting...she definitely didn't get that from me!
(stolen from my mom's facebook)

It's been awhile since I've done one of these. Bridget had her two-year checkup yesterday, which was supposed to include her Hep A (I think) and flu shots. Unfortunately, since she still has a raging ear infection, those have to wait until next week.

Height: 36.5 inches (97th percentile) - Over three feet! She's one tall drink of water.

Weight: 27 pounds (55th percentile) - She's usually higher in the weight percentile, which was a little concerning to us. Because she's been sick, she recently lost a pound and a half. The doctor said not to worry, though.

Head Circumference: 18.5 inches (36th percentile)

Food: Bridget prefers fruits, veggies (carrots, peas, corn), bread, and yogurt. She likes cereal and crackers as a snack. Sometimes she'll eat meat if it's chicken, lunch meat, or hot dogs, but she won't eat ground beef.

Drink: We forgot that at two years of age, she can switch to 1% milk instead of whole, but since she's still a skinny minnie, we'll probably finish up the whole milk we have first anyway. By the way, I can't say "skinny minnie" to her or she'll want to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Learned that the hard way.

Size: 2T in clothes, 5 in diapers, 6 or 7 in shoes. I keep buying her size 7 shoes thinking her feet are going to grow, but I think her one pair of size 6 shoes fit better at the moment.

Teeth: She's still missing some. She's got four to go on the side (two on top, two on bottom) and then some molars, too.

Sleep: Lately since she's been sick, it's not been unusual for Bridget to wake up once during the night and need some comfort. Once she gets over the ear infection, I think we're going to convert to the toddler bed and see how that goes.

Potty Training: Yeah, about that. We're not rushing it. We do have some big girl undies that we'll start using more often especially once she moves into the next daycare room when they start potty training there.

Favorite Things: Lion King, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sesame Street

Milestones:

• Can put two words together, but still has yet to really form more than two-word sentences.
• Identifies some colors, but mostly green, which is her favorite color.
• Repeats numbers back as someone counts. 
• Repeats nearly everything that she hears, meaning mommy really has to watch her mouth now.
• Uses real silverware like a pro and prefers that to her little plastic forks and spoons.
• Drinks from a cup, but we still mostly use sippy cups so that she doesn't spill when she's moving around.
• Mimics actions in her environment.
• Walks, runs, and climbs stairs with ease.

Comments from Her Daycare Teacher:

Her teacher says that Bridget is one of the most advanced socially, and that she acts more like a three-year-old. She's the leader in the classroom (and also the oldest; she's moving onto the next classroom next week), and is a very good helper. However, Bridget is easily influenced by bad behavior. If someone else climbs up on the table, she'll do it, too, although she knows it's wrong. The skills Bridget needs to work on are naming colors and counting. Otherwise, she's perfect (her words...maybe mine, too).

Happy Birthday, Love Bug!

Today is my daughter, Bridget's, second birthday! The party's not until Sunday, so I'll be sure to share some pictures after that along with milestones after we go to her two-year appointment, but here are some of my favorite shots from her second year of life.

My very favorite picture. Cutest. Dorothy. Ever.

Love you, baby girl!

Fifteen Month Stats

I forgot to document Bridget's 15-month checkup, so here it is a little late.

Height: 32.5 inches (95th percentile)

Weight: 23 lb 5 oz (50th percentile)

Size: 18–24 months in clothing (depends, some 18 month stuff is starting to get small, but some still fits), 4 in diapers, and 4 in shoes

Teeth: 6 — 4 on top, 2 on the bottom

Food: basically everything we eat with the exception of stuff toddlers shouldn't have like nuts, etc. And she eats more fruits and veggies than we do.

Drink: Mostly whole milk, and some flavored and regular water, too. The occasional juice.

Shots: Had two during this appointment. Just two more — at 18 months and 2 years and then she's done until kindergarten. Phew! Still, shots are not nearly as traumatizing as a blood draw or a chest X-ray, both of which she had to have within the last month.

Milestones:

• can point out her nose and belly button
• can use a spoon
• runs all over the place
• says "ball (bah)" and "dog (dah)" and "monkey (mah)." Do these words count? I don't know, but she knows what they mean.
• grabs her coat when she wants to leave
• knows where to go when it's time to change her diaper or take a bath

Pardon my foot

Officially a Toddler

I guess since Bridget is now WALKING, she's officially a toddler and no longer a baby.

Flashback to newborn Bridget

My mom was watching Bridget Monday, and when I came home, I asked her whether she had seen Bridget stand up on her own. She kind of half-smiled and handed me her camera to show me the videos she had taken. My jaw dropped! I had never seen her walking without assistance before!

(For those using a reader: video embedded - click to view post in a browser)

Hubs and I tried to get her walk more once he got home, but she was pretty tired. She also doesn't seem to like walking on the hardwood floor as much probably because it's not as comfortable to fall down on. Looks like we'll be replacing the area rug we got rid of in the living room after all.

Now that I have a toddler, I have a feeling it's only a matter of time before baby fever creeps back up...

Twelve Month Stats

Height: 31 inches (96th percentile)

Weight: 21 pounds 15 ounces (66th percentile)

Head Circumference: 17.5 inches (34th percentile)

Food: Table food--fruit and veggies are still her favorite, but she also eats toast, waffles, muffins, scrambled eggs, pasta, and crackers. We'll have to start working some more milk-based products in now like yogurt and cheese.

Drink: Her pediatrician recommended going cold turkey with no more bottles, so we switched her over to whole milk in sippy cups last night. She's doing fine with it, but she doesn't chug it as fast as she chugged bottles.

Size: 18 months in clothes, 3 in diapers, between 2 and 3 in shoes

Teeth: We can finally see two on top and two on the bottom beginning to poke through. We're hoping that explains her crankiness at night as of late.

Milestones:

• Starting to understand how shapes fit through things.
• Mimics actions in her environment--holding her hand up to her ear if someone is on the phone, trying to comb her hair with a comb, waving bye if someone says bye, or clapping if someone starts clapping or celebrating in some way.
• Walks around with help.
• Pulls up on everything.
• Likes to climb on things.
• Super fast crawler.
• Babbles a lot, can say mama, dada, baba, nana, duck (I think the only one she knows what it means though is “duck”).

All bundled up, wearing my hat and mittens from when I was a baby.

Nine Month Update

Hubs just taught her how to clap, and I think it's the cutest thing.



Height: 29.5 inches (95th percentile)

Weight: 19 lb 13 oz (75th percentile)

Head Circumference: I don’t remember, but it was the 25th percentile.

Clothing Size: some 9-month but mostly 12-month, size 3 diapers, size 2 shoes although she hardly ever wears shoes

Eating: finger foods like pancakes, peas, carrots; baby food, oatmeal, rice cereal, and formula

Favorite Food: Gerber Puffs

Favorite Toy: anything she can stick in her mouth.  She's a big fan of rubber duckies, even when not in the bath.  We saw teeth under her gums yesterday, so that's exciting.  The fun teething stage will start any time now.

Recent Accomplishments: army crawling, clapping, saying sounds like Da, Ma, Ba, Guh (but obviously, they don’t have meaning yet), standing supported

Current Nicknames: Bridgey, Bridge, Bridgey Baby/Bridge Babe, Bridgelit, Bridgemeister,Nakey Baby (for bath time), Miss Nakes (also for bath time), Squirmy Wormy (for when she won’t stay still on the changing table), Angel Baby (usually in the morning when I’m saying hi), Goofy, Little One, Sweet Stuff, Dimples

Fun Girly Weekend

I had a really fun weekend filled with girly activities.

My weekend consisted of lots of fun girly times! Having a baby at home, I know I don’t get to do friend-packed, going out type weekends all the time, so it’s nice to have the freedom to do one every once in awhile.

After work on Friday, I headed to a friend’s place for a Hanson filled night. One of the girls brought over her new Hansonopoly game (Hanson themed monopoly), and we played that while watching Hanson DVDs, eating pizza and snacks, and drinking wine (minus the pregnant lady). It was just what we all needed--a night of giggling and acting like we were 15 again. And bonus, I won Hansonopoly (only by $1,000--close game).

stolen from Facebook

I didn’t get home until 2 AM, and hubby let me sleep until 11. It was gloooooorious. But I was somehow still exhausted all day. I got some caffeine in me and met two of the girls and my mom for the Danny Gokey (from American Idol) concert at the Dodge County Fair. I was actually really impressed with the Dodge County Fair. I don’t think I’ve been to a county fair since high school, and this one way exceeded my expectations, mostly because they had chocolate covered cookie dough and deep fried Oreos!!!!!!! I thought the cookie dough was better than the state fair’s, but the deep fried Oreos were not as good. They were way too doughy.

The show itself was really good. Danny Gokey is a country artist, and I am definitely not a country music fan, but I still enjoyed the show. It wasn’t too country, and he did play some covers. We were front row, too, so that didn’t hurt.

stolen from Facebook

stolen from Facebook

Top: used to be a dress from Fred; Shorts: New York & Company; Shoes: Kohl's

After the show, Danny signed autographs for a really really really long line of fans, including us. My mom had him sign one of the 8x10s of him they were selling, and she asked him to write something religious on it so that she could hang it up at church. He thought about it for a few seconds, which I thought was really sweet, since my mom was blatantly holding up the entire line, hehe, and then he wrote his favorite Bible verse down. When it was my turn, while he was signing the CD I just bought, I said, “You make me like country music.” He looked up and was like, “You make me like you!” Awww, heart him. Hehe.

I kicked off Sunday by finally mowing the lawn and then met the girls for some lunch and shopping.

Dress: Kohl's; Slip, Sandals, Purse, and Watch: Target; Scarf: Dodge County Fair

For my baby shower, my coworkers got me a gift certificate to Coquette Cafe, and I was finally getting around to using it. I got a grilled tuna sandwich and a bloody mary, both of which were good. They had some really tasty mimosa options as well, but I had been craving a bloody mary for awhile now.

Then it was time to shop. We started off at shoo, where they now sell TOMS shoes! A couple of the girls bought themselves a pair, and I got a pair of cute printed T-strap flats on sale for $25. Normally $80, I think they said.

We also had quite the adventure in Anthropologie. I basically went around grabbing things for people to try, stuff that was outside of their comfort zone. Some of the things I picked out were completely off. Like, I had one of the girls try a color blocked look with blue pants and a yellow shirt, but the shirt happened to be the least flattering thing. Maybe tucking it in would’ve saved it, but I don’t know. I got one of the girls to try on purple skinny jeans, which looked good on her, but they were waaaayyyy outside her comfort zone of boot cut, normal colored denim. The hits were definitely a Mad Men-esque black and white pencil skirt with red sweater combo (also way outside her comfort zone, but it looked awesome), and a super cute green corduroy-ish 50s style halter dress, which I can’t find online, for another one of the girls. At the end, only one of us bought a top there.

Other than that, I got a tie blouse at Fred and two items for Bridget at H&M.

Speaking of Bridget, she was quite the handful all weekend. Last night, she cried for almost an hour and a half straight until I finally gave up and gave her a bottle. On the other hand, she also recently started crawling with her stomach on the ground!

Six Month Stats

Height: 27 inches - 90th percentile

Weight: 16 lb 12 oz - 68th percentile

Head Circumference: 16.3 inches - 24th percentile

Other Stuff: Received another round of vaccines and had a hip X-ray to see if her asymmetrical thigh folds are anything to be concerned about.  We'll get those results either tomorrow or Thursday.

Notes from Doctor:

• Babyproof the house!  Should've been done already, but our house is currently the opposite of babyproofed.  So...baby hazardous, I guess.
• Continue introducing fruits and vegetables one at a time, waiting three days or so in between each new food.
• A couple bottom teeth should be popping through in the next couple weeks!
• Make sure she can pass things from one hand to the other and contact the doctor if she cannot.
• Once she reaches 20 lb, she will probably need a convertible carseat since she's a tall drink of water.

That's it!  We have a healthy baby!  Hopefully the hip thing will be nothing, and we can proceed as normal.

Birth Story

Happy six months to my baby girl!  

To celebrate, I'm looking back at the story of her birth, which I posted on The Bump back in December.  

If you're grossed out/weirded out/not interested in childbirth (don't worry, my story is not graphic), feel free to ignore this post.  Or just enjoy the pictures of my cute kid.

On Monday, December 6, 2010, I had my 41-week appointment where I had a non-stress test and my membranes stripped.  At that time, we also scheduled an induction for that Thursday with the hope that I wouldn't need it.  After the stripping of the membranes, I started having light cramps.  These lasted through the night, but I didn't think much of it because this is pretty typical.

At 5 AM Tuesday, I woke up with slightly stronger period-type cramps.  They were constant, not timeable, but I figured calling into work would probably be a good idea.  By 6:00, I noticed a pattern with the cramps and began timing them using an app on my phone.  They were consistently 4 minutes apart, lasting for just under a minute.  This went on for 2 hours before hubs suggested I call the OB nurses and see what they thought.

They recommended I head to the hospital, which I was happy to do, because the cramps had amped up their intensity little by little.  We checked into the hosptial at 9:00.  I was 2 cm, so my OB decided to break my water at 10:30.

From there, the contractions gradually became more intense, especially when I tried walking a couple times. I only got a couple steps out the door before I gave up and hurried back to bed.  The pain was definitely getting to me at that point, and I got some relief with an epidural at 1:30.  At that point, they checked me, and I was at 3 cm.  The doctor decided to throw some pitocin in my IV to get things moving.

The epidural made me love life again, and I was able to smile and be social for awhile.  We watched a couple movies to kill time, and the epidural started to wear off after an hour or so.  The button they gave me to bump it up didn't do anything, so the nurse came in and topped it off, which immediately helped.  By about 4 or 4:30, I was at 8 cm and ready again for another top off of the epidural.

By 5:00, I was ready to push.  There was no pain but enough pressure for me to feel what was going on down there, so that helped me push.  Pushing should take a couple hours, we were told, so both sets of grandparents went to grab some dinner, and my doc was in the next town over running some errands.  Apparently, I was good at pushing because the nurses had to call the doc back right away.

At 5:26, Bridget Kendall was born!  She was 9 lbs 4 oz and 21.5 inches long.  Hubs cut the cord, and they put her on my stomach right away for a few seconds.  Then, they cleaned her off a little and put her on my chest.  Just like I've always heard, when I started talking, she looked right up at me.  It was cute!

So all in all, it was a very straightforward birth--everything went normally and pretty quick.  Recovery wasn't pleasant at all since I did have a little tearing, but painkillers definitely helped, during and after the birth.

Now for some pictures.

Can I Stop with the Awkward Today and Start the Awesome Already?

I haven't done Awkward and Awesome Thursday in awhile, but this day merits it.

Brittany from Cycle 4, one of the members of the ANTM Cycle 17 All Star Cast (Source)

Awkward

• Checking my blind spot while driving and pulling something in my neck. Now, whenever I turn my neck to the left at all, it hurts.
• Accidentally dragging the toe of my shoe, thus walking like a doofus as I walked by someone at work.
• Family dynamics and the mixing of two families. Awkward AND stressful. Bridget's Baptism is coming up Sunday, so planning for it is starting to stress me out.
• My work email not sending or receiving anything yesterday. That issue resulted in me giving people blank stares as they talked to me about emails they had sent.

Awesome

• The ANTM All Star Cycle! I would've liked to blog about the cast, but you can just read about it and see pics at A Blog About Things and compare it to my predictions. A couple girls that I really liked that were in my original 20 before I pared it down made the cut (Brittany and Laura, yay!). Then, there are a few that I think were just thrown in for the drama aspect. I am shocked that Heather from Cycle 9 isn't on the list.
• Wine tasting tonight! I will hopefully blog about that this weekend at some point...
• Birthday dinner tomorrow for one of Nate's friends. That I'll hopefully blog about, too, 'cause it's at a very tasty and kind of unique restaurant.
• Bridget's Baptism! The event is awesome in and of itself, but she'll also be wearing the dress I wore when I was baptized. Doubly awesome.
• Cookie dough was the flavor of the day yesterday at Kopp's! Pretty sure I had a cone while there and then a scoop later with the fam from the 1/2 gallon I bought. Clearly, the diet is going really well this week...
  

Solid Foods

Taken Saturday morning--I just thought it was cute how she was holding her burp cloth.

When we went in for Bridget's 4-month appointment, our pediatrician recommended we wait until she's 5 months old to start her on solids.  Well, one week shy is close enough, right?  Hubs got a little excited after talking to some friends about their experiences and went and bought some baby oatmeal.

We put 1 tablespoon of oatmeal in her 5 ounce bottle Sunday evening.  It took her probably twice as long to finish the bottle, and she spit it out several times when the nipple became clogged with oatmeal.  After I shook the bottle a little, she would continue drinking.  It seemed to do the trick because she slept from 7:00 until 5:15.

Optimistically, we tried again tonight.  She would suck at the bottle but wasn't actually taking any food in and started to get frustrated.  Hubs made the hole slightly bigger, but she still wasn't having it.  Finally, we went back to just formula, and she gobbled that down.

Now, I'm not sure what to think.  Maybe tomorrow, we should try giving the oatmeal to her with a spoon and see how that goes. 

So moms, what have your experiences been like when you first introduced solids to your kiddos?

Four Month Checkup

We took Bridget to her 4-month appointment yesterday. Here's how it went:

The Appointment

• 26 inches long, which puts her in the 95th percentile for height
• 14 lb 10 oz, which puts her in the 75th percentile for weight
• I don't remember her head circumference, but she was only 25th percentile for that I think.
• Got her second dose of vaccines, which of course she didn't like.
• Her thigh folds are slightly asymmetrical (???), which could be a sign of hip dysplasia.  Doc said not to worry, though, and if it's more prominent at her 6 month, we'll do an X-ray then.
• She has a mild case of eczema, so we're to put Cetaphil on her dry patches.
• We're supposed to wait until she's 5 months old to start solid foods.
• We are NOT supposed to be feeding her at night (Doc looked slightly taken aback when we told her we still were) because she should be able to go for eight hours at night without food.  Bridget should be sleeping through the night now, so we need to start sleep training her.
• Otherwise, she seemed like a happy, healthy baby.

The Aftermath

6:00 - Gave Bridget a dose of infant Tylenol because of the shots, and I started to give her a bottle.  The drugs were making her drowsy, so we decided to try to put her to bed.  By the time we actually got her in her bedroom and ready, she was screaming. 

7:00 - Still screaming, after Nate trying to soothe her, and she spit up all her food.

7:45 - I decide she's hungry again having no food left in her tummy, and I take her out to feed her.  She doesn't eat much, so I put her back down, and of course, she starts crying again.

8:30 - Nate gets up and tries to soothe her again.  Somehow, she finally falls asleep.

11:45 - Starts crying, so I get up and rock her, try giving her a pacifier, put on her seahorse a couple times, read the sleep book recommended by the doctor for tips (didn't really find much useful information for the situation, but more on that later).

12:45 - Essentially cries herself to sleep when I can do nothing to comfort her.  I was sitting in her room the whole hour, so I went back to bed at this point.

3:30 - Crying again.  At this point, it's been about 8 hours since she ate, so Nate got up and fed her.  Apparently, she wolfed down this food in minutes.

6:15 - Woke up but only ate 1 oz of formula.  Seemed happy, though.

Needless to say, night one of "sleep training" was hard.  But I kept reminding myself that it's supposed to be hard, but it should get better soon.  It was kind of nice to know that we're actually doing something proactive to get her to sleep through the night.

The book the doctor recommended was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.

I could see how the book would be very useful had we started sleep training earlier.  He had a lot of tips for babies birth through 3 months.  Most of the tips for 4+ months were for "post colic" babies, which Bridget is not.  We just haven't known we needed to sleep train her (or how we needed to) until now.  The vast majority of the book seemed to emphasize the importance of naps and a timely schedule.  That's all well and good, but it left me no advice for what to do in the middle of the night besides one page on how to soothe your baby.  So I guess we did the best we could--try to console her and know that crying is going to happen at this point.

STTN

These two members of the family slept through the night last night:

From Valentine's Day (first day she laughed!)

 These two did not...:

This one didn't either, but I'm not mad at her about it:

Here's how my night went:

9:00 PM - Went to bed.  Stayed up until 9:30 reading blogs on my phone.
12:30 AM - Dela woke me up whining next to my side of the bed.  I figured it was a Lassie-type-thing, and I heard Bridget grunting a little, so I got up, let the dog out, and made a couple bottles.  Bridget was quiet by the time I was done, so I let Dela back in and went back to sleep.
2:00 AM - Dela woke me up once again, whining.  This time, I figured I should check on Bridget.  I did so, and she was tossing around a little bit but was still asleep.  I filled up Dela's water dish, and went back to bed.
3:00 AM - Dela whining again??  I told her to go away and fell back asleep.
5:00 AM - WTF.  The dog again.  I let her out, grabbed a bottle, and headed to Bridget's room.  She was still asleep, so I sat in there until 5:30 when she woke up. 

Since she went to bed at 7:30, Bridget got 10 straight hours of sleep!  Woohoo!  I have no idea what my dog's deal was.  At first, I thought maybe there were bunnies outside that she wanted to chase, but that didn't seem to be the case.  This was Bridget's second time sleeping through the night, so it's probably going to go back to normal tomorrow.  Which is fine, as long as Dela's schedule goes back to normal, too.  I blame the weather.

Bridget Lately

Bridget's wearing pretty much all homemade stuff here (except her undershirt)--neat!

We've settled into a pretty good routine in the Mixed-up household.  I'm still working on finding the balance in my life, but that's nothing new.  Hubs and I have implemented a good system of taking turns so that neither of us lose sleep or patience.  I still do the laundry, and he still does the dishes for the most part, but we alternate nights putting Bridget to bed.  She still wakes up once or twice during the night, so we take turns with that, too.  If one person took the 1 AM shift one night, the other one does it the next night.

Last night, I got up at 1 AM, so when Bridget started grunting and fussing at 4:30, Nate suggested waiting a minute to see if she started crying instead of him jumping up right away.  I mumbled "K," rolled over, and fell back asleep.  At 5:30, my alarm went off, and I heard Bridget grunting a little again.  Nate didn't end up getting up to feed her at 4:30, but he also said he didn't get any sleep that last hour since she had been up the whole time.  So on one hand, score!  We may only have to get up once a night now.  On the other hand, bummer, she's still going to make noise from probably 4-6 every morning.  Baby steps.

Some of you may have seen my tweet yesterday about Bridget's cradle cap.  A couple of my friends reassured me about it already, but it still does kind of weird me out.  The girls at the daycare asked if they could work on remedying her cradle cap.  I said, "Sure, go for it!"  I certainly wasn't having any luck getting rid of it.  By the way, if you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, cradle cap is basically dry scaly skin on the baby's scalp.  It's kind of gross, but not the grossest thing ever, by any means.  Anyway, when I picked her up yesterday, I noticed that her head was noticeably free of scales.  Neat!  It wasn't until later that I also noticed it was almost entirely free of hair.  She now has very short wispy hairs on the top of her head, but her normal hair on the back of her head.  And of course the small bald spot on the back of her head that's always been there.  My poor baldilocks.  Like I said, though, a couple friends reassured me that her hair will grow back soon, and all will be fine.  It's not like the kids in class are going to make fun of her.

Bridge certainly doesn't care.  When I picked her up yesterday, she was all smiles with her feet up in the air.  Her new thing is playing with her feet, which seems to be pretty standard for babies her age.  She still likes her hands and anything made of fabric that she can bring to her mouth, like her shirts, blankets, or the tutu pictured.  I was really hoping she'd like her Sophie giraffe because it's cute and French, but no.  Not so much yet.  Unless it's her feet, hands, or fabric, she's not really interested.

One toy that does hold her attention briefly is her new LeapFrog My Puppy Pal that she received from a family friend.  I think our dog, Delaware, and I are more amused with it right now than she is, but I think Bridget will really like it when she gets a little older.  It's pretty cool because you can program it to say her name.  I also got her one of those seahorse toys that everybody raves about, but she wants absolutely nothing to do with that right now.  I guess we'll stick to her Queen or Journey lullaby CDs when we need her to go to sleep since those seem to be most effective.

Speaking of her sleeping and going back to the fact that Bridget now lifts her feet, that skill has also given her the ability to roll onto her side.  One day I found her practically face down in bed, which freaked me out a little, especially since she was still in her swaddle blanket.  Ah motherhood.  Now I get to worry about my kid for the rest of my life.  I'm starting to understand that aspect of my mom more although I think she can stop worrying about me now.  I'm 28, for crying out loud.

I think that's all that's new in Bridget's life.  Her 4-month checkup and shots appointment is coming up in a few weeks, so that'll be fun to see how much she's grown and such.  I'm glad Nate's taking her again, though, because I wouldn't want to watch her get the shots.  Although he hates needles and I don't mind them, he's much calmer in situations like that.

V'day Wrap-up

Yesterday turned out to be a good birthday/Valentine's Day.

• A lot of people wished me Happy Birthday on Facebook, which made me feel loved as lame as that may sound.
• A high school classmate reminded me of a friendly valentine I sent him in college from the days when my roommates and I would play Yahoo! Graffiti all the time, and it made me laugh.
• The angel food cake I made was tasty, and I only had to bring home two pieces, which is pretty good.
• I talked to someone about a possible matchmaking opportunity.  I love matchmaking!
• After having an awkward conversation with the wine dude in the grocery store, I managed to pick out a decent Shiraz (wine dude's favorite) and Moscato.
• Filets were sold out in three different grocery stores, so we had to buy the even more awesome, high roller steak.  It was expensive and delicious!
• Instead of getting me flowers, hubs brought home my favorite blueberry muffins and brownies. 
• We had a very nice dinner with hubby's sister after she spent some quality time with her niece while we were at work.
• And last, but definitely not least, my daughter laughed for the first time!  And I got it on video!

By the way, in case anyone is wondering, I did not get to watch Mad Love last night.  It was on the same time as House, so we watched that instead.  I see that CBS posted the episode online, though, so I'll have to watch it later.