Our weekend in Michigan

We went to Michigan for Memorial weekend. As usual, Lauren did very well on the plane. Her sleep schedule was a bit wacked since we got in so late on Friday but she still did well.
Lauren has been drooling like crazy for the past few days. I think she may be teething again. She's been blowing rasberries a lot to, I don't recall if she did this when she was teething before so they may or may not go hand in hand.
She learned how to clap on Saturday. It's the cutest thing EVER! She will clap if someone else claps and sometimes if I say YAY! I always say Yay and then clap, now she's doing it too. :) She's getting closer to getting up on her hands and knees every day. She also waved bye bye to Daddy this weekend. I'm not sure if it was on purpose or if the timing was just lucky.
She LOVES Chase (Grammy & Grandpas dog). Grammy sat on the floor with her and Chase would lick her hands and she would laugh. When chase would leave, she would grunt at him until he would come back to her. She's calling him.
Grammy took great care of Lauren this weekend and they had lots of time together. Grammy gave her her first bath in the big girl tub. She also had a bath in the kitchen sink. The swing in Grammy & Grandpa's back yard was also a big hit.

It's official, Lauren is afraid of men that are not Daddy. When she first sees a man (her Grandpas, Great-Grandpa, Uncles, etc.) she gets a big pouty lip and cries if they even look at her. She seems to do ok after she has some time to warm up to them slowly.

Am I doing the right thing?

Well, it looks like Daddy got pink eye too. And Laurens little daycare friend. :(

Lauren is feeling better as far as I can tell. She didn't nap well yesterday or sleep well last night though. She didn't want to go to sleep then she had a crying fit. I nursed her to sleep finally at 9:30 or so. She was back up at 10 and 11 and 4AM. I gave her motrin at 11 because she was rubbing her ear and I was wondering if she was in pain and that was why she kept waking.

Anyways, each time she woke, I nursed her back to sleep. It's so hard to know if I'm doing the right thing in that regard. I often nurse her back to sleep when she wakes in the nigth. Alright, it's more often than not, a lot more often than not. If I can't sooth her back to sleep without taking her out of her crib, I almost always nurse her back to sleep. I worry now that I'm starting to wean her, how am I going to get her back to sleep? Is she really hungry when she wants to nurse or is she just seeking comfort? She cries until I nurse her. It will be interesting to see how she does with my Mom this weekend. Mom hasn't had a problem getting her back to sleep in the past. I think she normally gives her a bottle if she wakes in the night. I've also been nursing her to sleep every night since day one. I really need to teach her to go to sleep on her own. She does great at daycare, they just put her down and she goes to sleep. That doesn't happen so well at home. Sometimes she will put herself to sleep, sometimes she won't. Since I'm not home with her during the day on the weekends, we don't have a consistant nap routine at home. We are often out running errands. Well, everything is going great as of now, I just wonder what will happen when I fully wean her...

Playing hooky

Well, last night was a little bit rough but so far, we are enjoying our day of hooky.

I put Lauren to bed a little after 8:00. She woke at 11:30 but couldn't open her eyes - they were sealed shut from all of the goop drying in her eyes. She was crying so hard. We took warm wash clothes and put them on her eyes until she could open them and we could clean them out. She woke again at 4:30 and her eyes were not as bad this time but she had some crusties on her eyelashes. When she woke for the day at 7:00, her eyes were back to normal aside from some minor puffiness. It's amazing how quickly these antibiotics work.

Today we have just been playing all day and Mommy's trying to get some work done from home. She's sitting in her exersaucer talking up a storm. She plays well in that thing for long periods of time.

Pink Eye

Well, when I picked Lauren up from daycare I saw that the small amount of goop had turned to a large amount of yellow/green goop. I took her to the doctor and she has pink eye and an ear infection. Sweet little baby didn't even cry today although she was sick.
This is her second ear infection in 4 weeks. I hope this doesn't become a theme. She's back on antibiotics and she and I will be playing hooky tomorrow and having a nice day together. Day care is a no-no with pink eye.

Eyes, Apples & Sleep

Last evening I noticed Lauren has some goop in her eye - more than normal "sleep". I made note of it and wiped it out. This morning she had some dried to her eyelashes. This is in her left eye only. It's not red or irritated and she's not itching it. I'm going to keep an eye on it. I hope she doesn't have something going on with her eyes.

Well after a few weeks, I decided to give apples a try again. This morning she had a dirty diaper when I woke her. The only time she has pooped in the nigth recently was when I gave her apples last. We'll see how the rest of the day goes. We may need to steer clear of apples for awhile again if she turns into a pooping machine like she did last time I gave her apples.

Lauren woke in the night at 2:30 last night. I waited to see if she would put herself back to sleep but she just wasn't doing it. I checked her diaper and she had fille it to the point that it leake out and soaked her onsie. Poor baby girl. I changed her and nursed her back to sleep. She's really been filling those diapers in teh night lately! I think it's because she's been falling asleep earlier that past few nights and so she hasn't gone potty before bed and had a diaper change. She must be playing like mad at daycare now because she is exhauseted and ready for bed by 7:15-7:30 at night now. That means we don't get much time together. :(

We went for a walk after daycare yesterday - about 1.8 miles. She seemed to like it. I like getting her out but than I don't get to "play" with her as much. Mommy needs the exercise though so we just talk and sing while we walk.

Oh, I almost forgot - Lauren pooped in the tub for the first time yesterday. Then she started crying really hard. She never cries in the tub. I guess she didn't like pooping in there.

This morning when I went to wake Lauren up, she was already awake in her crib just laying there peacefully looking around. When she saw me, her face lit up and she laughed with her big wide open mouth smile. There couldn't possibly be a better way to start the day.

I wish I had done this sooner...

I wish I had started this blog sooner but better late than never.

I'll try to remember some of the major milestones Lauren has hit.

Lauren was born on 10/19/04. She was 7 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. She is now 7 months and 1 week. At her last doctors appointment a few weeks ago, she weighed in at 17 lbs 6 oz and was 27 inches long. Boy has she grown!

She now has 4 teeth, her two bottom middle teeth and her top two "vampire" teeth. :) It's too cute. Her first tooth cut through March 18th, with the second to follow a week later. The third and fourth came in early May.
Lauren rolled over for the first time on February 12th. For the longest time she only rolled from her back to her belly towards the left. On her 1/2 birthday (April 19th), she finally learned how to roll from her stomach to her back. Now she is rolling all over the room in any direction. She's not getting up on all 4's yet but I suspect that will be any day. She is able to stand on her own if she holds onto the couch or something but only for a very short amount of time. She's been sitting on her own for a few weeks now and is getting better at it every day.

We started Lauren on rice cereal and oatmeal at 5 months. At 6 months we started adding in baby food. So far she has had green beans, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, pears, apples, bananas, and peaches. She seems to like everything we give her but the apples make her poop alot. Last Monday we started stage 2 baby foods. She had greenbeans & potatoes, and Apples & Blueberries.

We are slowly teaching her how to drink water out of a cup. At this point, more ends up on her that in her. She LOVES it and leans forward for more. I give her a sippy cup but she just chews on it, she hasn't figured out she needs to suck on it to get water out. She likes to play with it though.

I'm still breastfeeding but starting to wean her. I started adding formula into her bottles about 2-3 weeks ago. Yesterday was the first time she had 100% formula in all of her bottles during the day. I'm still breastfeeding her in the morning and before bed. I'm no where near ready to give that up. It's our best snuggle time. She's getting so active she doesn't want to snuggle much any other time. When I feed her I just look at her and stroke her head and cherish every moment. I'm so blessed to have her in my life.

Last week Lauren learned her first word: Ba ba. :) For a few days she just said it over and over and over. A few days later, she learned Ga. She's been pretty quiet for the past day or two. I'm anxious to see what will come next.