5 Months and Mother's Day

 Lydia FINALLY was all smiles for a photo shoot! Her 5 month pictures were so cute, I've posted almost all of them:-) She is SUCH a good baby. She's transitioned to the new house very well, is almost always eating/napping right on schedule (4 hr) and sleeping through the night. I've stopped "dream feeding" her and just feed her right before she goes down for the night between 8-9. Since she's going to bed that early, we've also moved her into the crib and Abram is in the BIG BED! AH! Room sharing is nothing new, I know, but it seems like nobody does this anymore...especially with brothers and sisters. We've had a couple good nights, a couple bad nights...we'll make it work! As you can see, we're in our old familar rocking chair! We moved into our new house this month!

 We started this photo shoot at just the right time...happily fed, not close to nap time.

 Looks like her Aunt Leslie in this one.

 Whereas Abram was always moving his legs...which we dubbed "cricket legs", Lydia has "happy feet"...she keeps her legs straight out a lot and rotates her ankles. She looks like a ballerina...and it makes all socks and shoes fall off very quickly!

 Foot still moving!

 This finger must taste good too...she is almost always sucking her left thumb now.

Sits with assistance...lists often!

 Brother Abram was behind me while I took pictures...wanting to "help" take pictures too. He is helpful in that she likes to smile at him.

 Lydia was yelling at him. It's already starting...(sigh).

Mother's Day was the Sunday after we moved into our house. I sang at the Mother's Day Banquet at church (Leslie played the piano for me but couldn't sing because of laryngitis). We had some sound system technical difficulties (ie, we couldn't access it until banquet had started) but I sang "Masterpiece" and "Love Never Fails". It was far from perfect, but we survived.  It was a good weekend. Jill and Krista dropped by on Sunday, so we took pictures...something I forgot to do on my FIRST Mother's Day (doh!)

Abram's "Portrait of Mommy"

Me and my kiddos.

My family

Abram's World

Since we got our smart phones, we haven't been using our camera as often. Abram has taken to using it on occasion. Here is a selection of his photography at age 2.

 

"Mirror Mirror"

"Tyson's Back"

 

"Smiles"

Abram might not have taken this one...could have been Curtis...but she's smiling!

"Breakfast"

"Morning Light"

 "Lydia in Morning Light"

 "I'm a Mommy on the Edge!"

 

"Looked Up To"

"Candid Camera!"

"Tower"

"Pink Shirt"

"Tower Detail"

"Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner"

"Grin-pa"

 "Cheese!"

 

 "Grin-ma"

 

 "Big Doggie"

 

"Little Doggie"

"After Work"

 "Red Lydia"

 

 "Sister"

 

"My Babies"

Ok, I obviously took this one, but I actually just took this because Abram had managed to turn on the timer and was taking pictures every 5 seconds!

Snowman

We had one last big snow at the end of March and Grandpa wanted to build a snowman with Abram before it all melted. So Abram got all bundled up!

 

His snowboots were about a size too small...but he squeezed into them and didn't seem to mind:-)

 

As you can see, he only had the drifts to work with by the time they went out! Abram started off interested...

 

 But began to wander...

 

Came back to help a bit...

 

 and then off he went...

 

 Grandpa's doing a great job!

 

 "Ooooh, that's what you're making!"

Willing to take a little credit for helping:-) Nice snowman boys!

4 months...the MAGIC month!

For Lydia, it seems like 4 months was a turning point for her. We've been living with my parents after moving all our stuff to the new house. The house still needs work, but that's an entirely different post. Before moving, I had tried leaving Lydia unswaddled and that was an epic fail, waking up every hour through the night...I quickly reinstated the swaddle. Here at mom and dads we started swaddling her again for naps. She was working one arm out and finding her thunb, so we just started leaving that arm out. I also switched her to a 3 1/2 hour feeding schedule because she was SCREAMING at me at 3 hours and refusing to eat. This combination of events, or maybe just her getting older every day, seemed to do the trick! She started taking nice long naps that I would wake her from to eat...at which point she would eat, sometimes both sides (yay!) and then be pleasant til it was nap time again!

 

On the 3 1/2 hour schedule, I was cluster feeding in the evening (6, 9, 11ish) then feeding her around 3 AM if she woke...but then it was getting closer to morning, and we let her CIO a bit. She was waking up once or twice, but usually we could give her the pacifier and it would soothe her, so I knew she wasn't really hungry. She doesn't hold on to the pacifier like Abram did, she'll suck for a few seconds when I lay her down and then spit it out...unfortunately, I think we have a thumb sucker...and I'm going to just let her be one. Once she found her thumb, she was putting herself back to sleep, and after a few nights she was managing 7-8 hour stretches. Hallelujah! It will be a much harder habit to break than the paci, but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

 

At 4 1/2 months, I've switched her to 4 hour schedule and it is GLORIOUS! I'm waking her at 7 to eat, she plays on her mat or swings while I get Abram (and myself) up and around. Nap from 9-11, eat at 11, awake til 1, nap 1-3 (Abram down at the same time=Mommy nap or movie....or chores), eat at 3 before Abram wakes up, awake til 5, nap 5-7 (sometimes shorter), eats when she wakes and then ready for bed between 8 and 8:30. I do a dream feed (df) close to 11....and she sleeps til I wake her! Like I said, GLORIOUS! This has worked for the past week and I hope to stick to this, eventually dropping the dream feed...and will probably have to pump for comfort!

 

Love this expression...looks so much like Abram.

 

She has been spitting up MUCH less that she used to...she still does, but it's not everywhere, every feed and in between, so I haven't felt the need for bibs to accessorize every outfit. I hate bibs covering up cute clothes! She is a very pleasant baby, smiley and TALKATIVE! She screeches and babbles all the time on her play mat, until I come near, then she smiles and stares at me. Abram can get her to giggle slightly, but she's not a big laugher yet. Abram never was really, always just gave him hiccups!

 

At her 4 month appointment she was 13 lbs (10-25%), 24 inches (25-50%)...I never put any of Abrams stats on the blog, and his baby book is still in a box, but I  KNOW he was never this low in the length percentile...Lydia might have inherited the Cunningham genes when it comes to height! 

 

Lydia went with us to the house in Henryville to get the final load and clean it all up! She was a very good baby and let me get SO much done while Curtis was attending to some real estate business!

 

As I write this, April is almost over...we'll be in our new house soon...I'll be making baby food again soon! The weather is slowly, SLOWLY getting warmer and I'm excited to use my new stroller around town! Can't wait for summer....pool weather!

 

3 months...a little late

These 3 month pictures were taken on time, but there has been quite a bit going on (moving makes things hectic) and I haven't had time to sit down with the laptop and transfer them to do a post!

My little bright eyes. Lydia's getting bigger every day...growing out of her 0-3 month clothes. She has rolls that Abram never dreamed of having...evidently she gets more than she needs in the five minutes she eats every 3 hours! I know that by now Abram was eating every 4 hours but since Lydia hasn't given us a blessed 7 hour night, I'm sticking with the 3 hour schedule for now. Plus it makes her nap at the same time as Abram...which is very nice! She's a cat napper and a nibbler, so it's been hard to get her scheduled.

 Her hair is growing in a little on top, but she still has a decent bald spot in back where its just peach fuzz. I think her dark hair will fall out and it will come in blonde like Abram's did...and then darken later maybe. Not sure if it will curl. We'll definitely have to stick to headbands for a while:-)

 She's such a pretty girl. Other than her belly pains, she also very pleasant, very smiley. I've heard a slight giggle (3-12) from time to time and she's doing well with belly time, holding her head up quite well now. She started really "talking" (3-18) all of a sudden, when Mom and I were shopping at a consignment sale. Smiling, cooing, gurgling and flirting with everyone! I have a feeling the talking will never stop now!

  Sleeping is a struggle. She's just very wakeful! Every now and then she'll have a good nap day and sleep until her next feeding, but often she'll sleep 20-50 minutes and wake up. I blame her stuffy nose. I can't wait for it to clear up so she can BREATHE! I use saline and the nose frieda til I'm blue in the face, and it gets the superficial gunk, but her sinuses are still stuffed up. Ugh! Hopefully not babysitting anymore will help with that...the boys I watched were always snotty, poor things.

4 month pictures will be coming in a few weeks...hopefully in our new house!

I love her little baby feet...still so tiny...not even in size 1 yet.

Attitude and Sleeplessness

This isn't a good combination.

Abram was a good sleeper. He took to sleep training very well. I remember really stressing over it because I wanted him on a good sleep schedule by the time I returned to work. He's still a good sleeper. 10-11 hours at night and almost always a solid 2 hours in the afternoon.

But recently he's developed an attitude. I'm told it's called "two". I'm doing my best to stay on top of this attitude.

Enter, Lydia.

Lydia started out sleeping really well and she gave me a few 6 (even 7) hour nights. But for the last...I don't even know how long...she's been waking between 3:50 and 4:50 and requires pacifying of some sort. I try anything and everything but feeding her. Sometimes she goes back to sleep quickly, but sometimes she keeps waking up during that hour and I'm up and down and up and down and up and down. Sometimes I just end up bringing her to bed with us, because then, of course, she sleeps.  It's exhausting.

Abram's 2 hour nap is his saving grace. It lets me take a nap too...which gives me the boost I need to calmly curb the attitude.

Please sleep, sweet Lydia. I don't know how much longer your brother will let us nap.