A Little Help Over Here Please!

Okay, so I am in search of some parenting advice on a couple of issues- please offer your 2 cents because I'm needing some help!

SLEEP- Delaney slept through the night from about 2 months until about 7 weeks ago. Now she wakes up all night long and hates to be put back down. I rock her back to sleep then lay her down and 20 minutes later she is back up again! AARRGG!!! I am getting very frusterated. I am a little afraid to let her "cry it out" because we live in an apartment and she is VERY loud. We are also going to be moving in the next 2 months and I don't want to go through that process twice... So- any suggestions?!


EATING- my (almost 9 month old) daughter HATES solid foods. She loves her baby food but when you put a cheerio or puff or even bread in her mouth she starts to cry. I've tried about 100 times and still no dice- Any suggestions?

Mental Health Day

You know those days when you feel like your head might explode? (ok, maybe it's just me) Anyway after the last few days, and sleepless nights I NEEDED to get out of the house for awhile, no matter how bad I felt. Thankfully, my wonderful mom said she would watch The Laney Bug and I ran out of the house as fast as I could ( Hey- I love my kid, but sometimes I need to get away). Jess agreed to keep me company and we had the best day! We went to Red Robin for lunch, then to Barnes and Noble (like two good formerly employed English teachers might) and finally to get a pedicure. It was WONDERFUL and relaxing. It was such a treat to have some girl time, without my little tag along. I came home to find my mom and Delaney snuggled up taking a nap in the chair and I was ready to be a patient, happy mommy again. (Isn't she cute?)

Acknowledgements:

My Mom- THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! All of your loving help is appreciated more than you know!

Jessica- Thank you for being willing to entertain me on short notice- I have the best friends!

Fran- For teaching Laney how to drink from a cup, it has been such a help in keeping fluids in Laney the past few days (but she still cries when I put a cheerio in her mouth)

On an unrelated note: this is Delaney's new trick, she crawls to something that she and use to help her stand up... I'm worried that walking's not far behind!

A Day in the Life

12:30 am: Mom's coughing up a lung, wakes Laney up. Laney cries, mom tries unsuccessfully to put her back to sleep 3 times.

1 am: In a moment of sleep deprived desperation, mom moves two dogs and one sleeping husband to a far corner of the bed so that Delaney can sleep in bed with her hoping that they will both get some sleep. Angus begins to snore- loudly.

4 am: Mom wakes up as a result of the two fingers Delaney has shoved up her nose. In a sleepy haze mom tries to put Laney back to sleep, an attempt that is foiled several times by fits of mom's coughing (and one time by a binky jumping ship which required a serious search a rescue operation waking up both dogs and sleeping, now cranky, husband)

6 am: Delaney wakes up again. Mom feeds her, gets her dressed and then lets her play. Mom drinks a Dt. Mt. Dew to help clear her vision, regretting that she can't get her caffeine via IV.

8:30 am: Delaney goes down for a nap. Mom (still hacking up a lung) makes tea, gets a blanket, book and settles down for a nap.

8:32 am: Laney wakes up from nap.

10 am: Mom gets Laney to sleep by laying down with her.

Noon: Mom is awaken by Laney trying to pull out her earring, notice the marked improvement of Laney's fine motor skills.

*** Several uneventful hours pass ( punctuated by 3 more Mt Dews, a lot of coughing, and Swede bringing the head of a bunny to the front door)*****

6 pm: Daddy's home!!! Laney decides that tonight she MUST be with her daddy every second.

6:15 pm: Dad has to take a test online, Laney decides that is an unacceptable use of his time and begins to scream- loudly. Dad can't concentrate, closes all doors to the computer room and begins humming to himself. Mom still coughing and trying to distract Delaney.

7:30 pm: Laney takes a bath and prepares for bed. Protests loudly when washcloth is taken away.

8 pm: Daddy comes into say goodnight. Dad and Laney play.

8:03 pm: Daddy leaves, Laney begins screaming and refusing to go to bed

8:39 pm: A frustrated Mom takes Laney to Dad to play. Mom shuts herself in computer room and begins humming to herself.

9:30 pm: Mom tries to put Laney in bed again.

9:31- 10:25 pm: Laney screams out loud, mom screams silently in her head.

10:30 pm: Mom finally turns on Larry King Live (that would put anyone to sleep)

10:45 pm: Laney in bed. Mom now drinking tea with whiskey in it.

Sick

Well it was bound to happen, Delaney got her first cold. She and I both woke up this morning feeling terrible! I breaks my heart to see her so miserable, she won't play- she just starts to whimper and crawls back in my lap and puts her head down. Thank goodness we're still at my parents house so I have lots of help, my mom went and talked to every pharmacist in the Tri-cities trying to figure out what cold medicine was safe to give her. So far today her fever hasn't gotten too high and she is still taking fluids and is sleeping a lot. So if any of you vetran parents out there have any miracle suggestions to help make her more comfortable I'd love to hear em!

Spring!

Finally, we had a nice day here on the farm! So I decided to take the Laney Bug out for a walk and to let her play outside for awhile. (FYI- pushing a stroller on gravel roads is a lot more work than I intended!)

Thanks for the great hat Grammie- don't take it personally that she threw it in the dirt three times on our walk!
A girl after her mom's heart, reading a book outside in the sun! (okay maybe there's more eating going on here than reading but I like to eat too!)
Here she is checking out the grass, I think this was the first time she's really felt grass, I think she was a little unsure about it at first but then she warmed up and started trying to eat it, of course!

8 Months

Delaney's 8 months old today, I can' t believe its gone so fast. I weighed her this morning and she is already 19 lbs (she won't hold still long enough for me to measure her). Today she has suffered with her new found crawling skills by bonking into everything. Poor kid, I can see a padded room is in order. In addition to crawling she also LOVES eating her baby food, particularly banana strawberry and sweet potatoes (we've only had peas one time, and that didn't turn out well, for either of us). It's hysterical watching her eat because with every bite she says "mmmm" and if you're too slow with the spoon she will yell at you (takes after her mommy a little?) She loves to be hung upside down, and has stopped sleeping through the night.

Her latest trick is this smile. It's almost like when she looks at you she is going to try to give you her best smile, and she's trying so hard that she squints her eyes and sticks out her chin... I think its so funny because she looks like such a dork!

Crawling!!

So as you can see Delaney has gone from trying to crawl to crawling... in just one day! I woke up this morning and she was EVERYWHERE! You turn your back for a minute and she's across the room trying to eat a dog bone. I can see that my days of setting her on the floor to play by herself are over!

Miss you Daddy

Ryan has been gone a lot lately and we're really starting to miss him. Especially Delaney- he tosses her around all the time and it's just not the same when I do it... I miss him getting up with her in the morning on the weekend so that mommy can sleep in (I'm not sure he misses that though). It does sound like he has been having fun living the bachelor life in Seattle, he claims to now be dressing directly out of the dryer so as to avoid even removing the clean clothes and he has been watching a lot of sports with his friends (glad I missed that) and I'm guessing he's been eating pizza for 3 meals a day. We'll be glad to have him back this Friday- and you can bet I'll be sleeping in on Saturday!!

Future Coug Day

Ryan had to go back to school for two weeks before he came back for his Othello rotation so Delaney and I decided to stay on the farm instead of packing twice and schlepping over the mountains. So now that we have all this time on our hands I convinced my mom to drive with Laney and I to Pullman to visit my brother Andrew and wander around WSU. This was Laney's first trip to WSU so I had to show her all my favorite places while we were there.... and I thought it would be good early exposure to her future University.

Here's Delaney with my mom wearing her uncle Drew's hat. We're at Sellas- my favorite restaurant in Pullman... They serve the BEST calzones, so I consumed about 2000 calories I'm sure! Here's Laney with her uncle Drew in his apartment ( VERY clean for a boys apartment I must say)
And finally, Laney and I in front of the infamous sign that leads into Pullman, I figured she needed a picture there on her first day at WSU so we can compare it with her picture after she graduates! Overall, we had a great day- we visited The Bookie and got cheese at Ferdinands, and reminisced about the old days! GO COUGS!!!