Cecilia's Sleeping Patterns

It was no surprise that over the last few weeks Cecilia's sleeping habits have been all over the place.  Right before Thanksgiving, while Katherine and I were at the hospital delivering Felicity, Cecilia had to fall asleep at night without the help of mommy or daddy.  She pretty much stayed up til 11 PM or so with Grandpa and finally was tired enough to go to bed.  Two days later, Cecilia had two grandparents and two uncles staying in our home with mommy back with a newborn.  Needless to say, the whole townhouse was kind of upside for a few days.  Then soon after Thanksgiving, Cecilia came down with a cold which turned into an ear infection.  That had her waking up crying several times a night.  Then she got another bacterial infection a couple weeks later.  

Finally, right around Christmas, she got into an interesting pattern, which we did not notice immediately;  we would try and get her to bed around 8 PM or so, but she would cry and fuss and we had to go in and calm her and then try to get her to sleep again, which she would finally do around 9 PM.   She would not wake up til between 7 AM and 7:30 AM.  So we moved her bedtime routine and start her bath around 7:50 PM now and lately, she's been ready for sleep between 8:45 and 9 PM every night now.  And of course she still cries some when we leave her in her bedroom, but she adjusts her sheets and such and soon falls asleep.  She even wakes up occasionally to adjust things in her bed and returns to sleep without making much of a fuss at all.  For the past 5 or so nights, she has slept the whole time from 9 PM or so until 7 or 7:15 AM.  

She still takes a nap during the day, for about 1 1/2 hours, usually between the hours of 1 and 3 PM.  She of course does not think she needs a nap, but once we get her into her room and tuck her in and leave, she cries for a little bit, but soon adjusts her surroundings and falls asleep.  

So she regularly gets between 12 to 13 hours of sleep a day.  I think her sleeping habits have become normal finally, and hopefully, with good health, these patterns won't be disrupted again too soon.  

Toilet Teaching One Day At A Time

Yesterday we began potty teaching Cecilia and indeed it was a successful day. In one day, she mastered step 1, namely, she became comfortable enough to sit on potty - which is an Elmo decorated kiddy toilet seat positioned on an adult toilet - for about 10 minutes (or about 3 stories) at a time. Considering yesterday morning when we first put her on it, she cried and only got through half a story and this morning she was content to sit through 3 stories, I'd call yesterday a success.

It is only 8am and today has already been another success. During her first visit to the potty this morning she peed in the potty! The first little bit ceased quickly because she got excited over a balloon in the story I was reading her and the second little bit lasted only a little longer because she became curious what the sound was of the pee hitting the toilet water. But she did it nonetheless.

Day 1: Remove Fear of sitting on toilet. CHECK!
Day 2: Be Relaxed enough to pee in the toilet. CHECK!

Of course the whole thing will take a while, but I have no complaints about our start.

Cecilia, the Big Sister

This morning I got Felicity out of her swing and told Cecilia that Felicity needed a tushie change. I set Felicity on the changing table and got the wipes. While I was doing that, Cecilia tried to get one of Felicity's diapers out for her but I had not restocked her pile. So instead Cecilia went to the pile of her own diapers and set one next to the changing pad for Felicity.

Such a good big sister!

NOOOOOOO!

LOL. Well, I guess it was bound to happen. In addition to many words including Flower, Ball, Balloon, Sure, Book, Bird, Meow, Baa, Arf, Fish, and others, she has finally learned to say the word NO and boy does she like saying that one!

Yet another cold. ::sigh::

It is unbelievable. It is like we can't win. Or maybe I should say Cecilia can't win. Just today when she got the all clear from her urinary tract infection, she has another cold! Her nose has been running like a faucet since yesterday. I vainly hoped it was just teething but it is clearly another cold. My guess as to where she got it was a woman sitting behind us in Church last week. She sat directly behind Cecilia, was sniffling the whole mass, but still shook hands with everyone during the Sign of Peace. Another man at Church kept coughing but never covered his mouth. I commented to James I am tempted to just skip going to any Church until the flu and cold season is over since some people seem completely inconsiderate of the health of others. With rare exception, the only places Cecilia, Felicity or I have been in the last month have been Church and doctor's offices and yet the illnesses seem to attach to us like mosquitos to sugar.

Felicity - 1 Month Old

Felicity turned 1 Month today. I can't believe it - time seems to have flown so fast. But she is certainly using it well. According to our baby scale she weighed in this evening at 7 pounds and 12 ounces. Considering she had dropped to about 5 pounds and 10 ounces in her first few days, she has gained about 2 pounds in the last 3 weeks! And that is with a cold for about 2 weeks! She also measured in at 20 1/2 inches which, using the measurement the nurses took at the hospital, gives her a growth in height of 1 3/4 inches! Talk about sprouting like a weed! She nurses very well though, so it is easy to account for her growth. Some days she nurses on and off all day. Other days she sleeps much more. She fluctuates but between eating and sleeping she is doing very very well. (I think Cecilia likes those days best when Felicity sleeps more - lol.)

First Smile!

Well, today I was giving Felicity a little tummy time on her playmat while Cecilia napped. She does pretty well. She can rotate her head from side to side and picks it up here and there. She also enjoyed swinging her arms and hitting the dangling monkey. After a while she began to be discontented with her activity (who wouldn't?). So I picked her up and told her how well she did and she lit up with a big toothless smile. Of course she didn't understand what I said but I'm sure she understood it was positive and not negative or threatening. She wasn't asleep (we've had many sleep grins) and she wasn't simply passing gas. She just lit up with a great big smile and I count it as her first.

Three Weeks!

Well, we used our baby scale to weigh Felicity on her 3 Week Birthday. On our scale she weighed in at 7 lbs., 1 oz. I think she has passed the worst of her cold though it continues to give her a bit of difficulty breathing. Cecilia continues to grow fond of Felicity. Cecilia will ask Felicity to lay down with her and will alert us immediately if Felicity is crying or the music on her swing has stopped.

Ah, Sleep!

Well, I'm not sure which daughter impressed me more last night. Cecilia, while she woke up twice, put herself back to sleep both times and so slept the night from about 8pm until 7am without needing James or me. Felicity, apparently trying to compete with Cecilia, slept not in 2 or even 3 hour segments but in 2 segments of 4 hours each! We went to bed around 10 and she didn't wake until around 2am to nurse and then slept again until past 6.

Of course it was only one night, but it was a good one regardless!

Unfortunately Felicity is struggling with a cold this week. Being not even 3 weeks old she is not very good about clearing her throat and if the cough gets bad enough she will spit up and has done so three times now. Fortunately though she has not had a fever and has continued to nurse and sleep well even through Cecilia squeals.

Felicity "10" Day appt.

Well, Felicity had her "10" day appt. yesterday even though she was 11 days old. Heehee. Her doctor said she looked good. As far as her schedule of nursing and sleeping he said, obviously, if she lets me know she needs to eat, to feed her, but otherwise whatever works best for everyone is fine.

She measured about 19 inches and her head grew as well.

As far as her weight there is a bit of a debate. When the nurse tried to take Felicity's weight, she had trouble with the scale. She couldn't get it to set from Kgs. to Lbs. When she finally got it set the scale read 5 lb., 15.8 ounces. She wrote down 5 lbs., 15 ounces. When I spoke to the doctor I asked if that .8 was tenths or sixteenths. He said it was tenths and her weight should have been recorded as 6 lbs. They rounded up at her appt. a week ago and yet didn't this past week so she was reflected as only gaining 4 ounces instead of 5, which is the minimum they look for. Now, concerned over weight gain, we had purchased a baby scale that measures to the half ounce when Cecilia was a newborn. I weighed Felicity on that last night and she weighed 6 lbs., 5.5 ounces. Frankly, seeing her when she was born, watching her lose weight and then gain it, she looks to me to weigh closer to our scale than the office's. So what does she weigh? Well, James says he has tested our baby scale comparing it to a mail scale we have and an item of which he was certain of the weight and he said it is accurate. I want to test a heavier object to see if the amount goes off with greater weight but for the time being I must say while I do not completely discount the doctor office's measurement, I am doubtful to its accuracy, esp. given the nurse's difficulty with it.


As a wonderful family note, Felicity did get to be held by her big sister for the first time this morning. Next time I will have to have the camera handy. Cecilia held Felicity in her lap just looking and smiling at her. And then she took her hat and tried to put it on. Discovering it didn't fit, she gave it and Felicity back to me and went and got her own hat.