Getting ready for Michigan, drooling machine

Well, I was looking at the medicine bottle today and it looks like they gave us Amoxycillin again. They said they were going to try something different this time since they are supposed to try a new one if it's been less than 6 weeks. It's only been 4 weeks since she was on it last. Hmmm.... Hope the ear infection goes away! She seems better but she never complains anyways so it's hard to know.

We are leaving in 2 days to go to Michigan for our vacation. We'll be there until July 31st then Daddy and I are leaving Lauren with Grammy & Grandpa for 5 days. We're going to miss her like crazy!! We're excited she'll have so much time with them though.

I thought the drooling would subside after she cut this last tooth but it's actually picked up. She's drooling like mad! I wonder if there is another tooth coming in somewhere. I can't feel one anywhere yet.

Tooth # 6 and another ear infection

Tooth # 6 came a few days ago and I can't believe how quickly it is coming in. These top middle teeth seem to come in quickly.

Day care called on Friday and said they thought she had an ear infection. She was crying every time Lynda tried to lay her down. She would act fine as long as she was vertical. She didn't nap a single wink that day. I took her to the doc and she does in fact have another ear infection. Poor baby girl. Today is Saturday and she seems to be feeling fine now that we have her on the antibiotics and ear drops that numb her ears.

We had a fun day today. She's really very close to crawling. Check it out:

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=100_5300

So cute!!

We discovered today that she loves to sit at the sliding glass door and pound on it and smoosh her face on it. Too funny and too cute!!

Lauren does not like the beef and spagetti baby food, or the chicken and pasta, or the chicken or turkey and veggies. I'm wondering if she doesn't like meat much or if it's just the meat in baby food she doesn't like. I can't blame her, I find it pretty nasty myself. She had some chicken nuggets at daycare and apparently liked them so it's probably the baby food.

Teething #6

Teething is back on. Poor baby girl. She's drooling like a faucet. The last 2 days she has started to take her bottle and stops, starts and stops, etc.. I can tell her gums are really hurting her. I've taken to giving her orajel before she eats and that helps. Motrin seems to help a lot too.

She woke last night about 40 minutes after I put her down to sleep. She was really screaming so I went to her. She fell asleep before she finished her bottle. I gave her some orajel and she drank the whole bottle then went back down to sleep. She woke up when I put her back in her crib and it took her about 5 minutes to really settle in. I stayed with her until she was asleep then she slept all night.

I'm trying to cut her back to 5 bottles a day. I though giving her a bottle in the morning instead of breastfeeding would do the trick but she still chowed all 6 bottles. Yesterday she had:

7:00 AM - 6 oz bottle
8:30 AM - 6 oz bottle, jar of baby food, 1/2 banana
11:30 AM -6 oz bottle, jar of baby food, 1/2 banana
3:30 PM - 6 oz bottle
6:30 PM - 4 oz bottle, jar of baby food
7:30 PM - 2 oz bottle
8:15 PM - 8 oz bottle

normally she eats 6 oz at 6:30 and again at 7:30 and is done for the night. This morning I gave her 8 oz. We'll see when I pick her up from daycare if she still finished all of her bottles. I'll probably try 9 oz tomorrow morning since she sucked down every drop this morning.

Learn, learn, learn, that's all she wants to do.

Lauren seems to really step her learning on the weekends. Or maybe she learns it during the week but just doesn't show Matt and I until the weekends so we think she's doing it for the first time. I'm sure she doesn't want us to feel bad about her learning new things while she's at daycare. :)

This weekend she:
-learned to shake her head (she's not doing it to communicate as far as I can tell. She doesn't shake her head to say No, she just shakes it. It's pretty funny. If I say, "shake your head" and shake mine, she will shake hers. Sometimes she shakes her head and looses her balance and falls over.)

-learned to get up from laying down to sitting on her own

-started army crawling

I swear she said hooray in reply it being said to her but I think I must have been hearing things. :)


Today was our first day of no more breastfeeding. It's a sad day for Mommy. I'm just not making enough milk for her anymore. I don't know how I'm going to get her to slow down for some snuggles anymore. *sigh* My little girl is growing up.

Trying to crawl, assisted steps

Well, the sleep training & bottle feeding did the trick. Lauren is not sleeping 7:30 - 7:00 again. If she does wake up, she plays with her stuffed animals and puts herself back to sleep usually with no crying or a very minimal minute or two.

She was playing like crazy this past 3 day weekend. She's getting really close to crawling. We saw a big improvement in her abilities in this area over the weekend alone. At the beginning of the weekend she was trying to lean forward but wasn't getting on all fours. Now she's almost getting on all fours but her legs are not quite in the right position. Sometimes a leg gets stuck out in front of her or something. If we put her on all fours, she will stay there for awhile and sometimes even move her hands then her legs slide out behind her. She hasn't figured out that she needs to move them too.
She is now taking some steps if when I hold her hands in a standing position. These are very tenative steps and I sort of have to make her lean forward then she will step.
I can see her getting frustrated with not being able to get anywhere. She will go from sitting and throw herself forward onto my lap, then when I pick her up she throws herself forward to get off of my lap. She has also learned how to scream. It's lovely really. :) She screams when she is frustrated.
Friday (July 1), she learned how to wave bye-bye. She waved bye to Lynda at daycare and we thought it was just a fluke but when I got home I said, "wave bye to Mommy" and she did over and over each time I said it!

Lauren had some cheese for the first time this weekend and loved it.

We also learned this weekend that it's definitely time to baby proof. Lauren pulled the vacuum cleaner down and it crashed down, missing her by inches. She rolled over to the coffee table where there was a bowl of potpourri and tipped it over. When Matt walked in the room, she had just put some in her mouth. She also rolled over to her dresser in her room and figure out how to open and close the drawer. Thankfully, I stopped that before she smashed her little fingers. I think the peacful "she's in the same place we left her" days are behind us. :)

It's so fun watching her explore and learn!

Sleep Training night #3

Could sleep training really be working this well, or are we just getting lucky??

Again, last night she was bottle fed and fell asleep eating and I put her in her crib.

7:45 Asleep
7:59 woke up cried moderatly hard
8:06 back to sleep
6:10 AM up for the day

She put herself back to sleep pretty quickly. She also woke a few times in the night and didn't fuss. She just played with her stuffed animals that were in her crib for awhile then went back to sleep.

I can't tell you the stress this has taken off of me. I can now put her to sleep and know she's pretty much down for the night. She was SO happy this morning. She woke up this morning and was playing with her stuffed animals and talking to herself. I opened the door to her room and she looked at me through the slats in her crib and started laughing and kicking her legs like crazy. I love having my happy baby girl back!!

She wore her 4th of July outfit to daycare today. Too CUTE!