Pre-party!

Kaylani turns 1 in just over a month (which is pretty scary). She'll have a great big party (even scarier). She'll have a great big cake to make a great big mess (not quite as scary as we used to think). And she'll get to hang out with all her friends and family that can make it there (not scary at all). Since some of those things are scary, today we pre-partied. Not for Kaylani, but for Aadi.

Aadi turned 1 yesterday, and had a great big party today. We went over around 12pm to hang out with our friends and their friends and family. In the kid department, there were 5 kids around Kaylani's age and 3 kids a little bit older. Kaylani fell right in the middle, with most of the kids being older than her, which meant that most of the kids were walking/running around. Kaylani, on the other hand, crawled around, picked herself up, and just followed along. We used to say we couldn't wait for her to start walking on her own. After today, we're not quite so sure.

After hours of playing, it was cake time! Aadi had 4 types of birthday cake (3 cakes, and a ton of cupcakes). He was a little shy to put his hands right in the cake and go for it, and didn't even like the chocolate (a baby who doesn't like chocolate?? I know, shocked us too). But since Kaylani and Aadi are such close friends, she wasn't shy. She dug right into Mommy's piece of cake and started smashing it all over the place and eating it too. Luckily for us it was only a small piece of cake and she didn't eat THAT much of it.

The reason she actually didn't eat that much is because Daddy is holding her back. He's waiting for Kaylani's own first birthday party before he lets her go wild. Because of that, you won't find a single picture of Kaylani eating cake today (purposely excluded from pictures so there's no evidence...besides this post. Doh). But if you do want to see the mess, check back in 5 weeks. That's when we'll let Kaylani go wild. Hopefully she'll nap and be rested for her own party and not stay up for 7 hours straight and pass out the second we put her in the car. That's okay for her pre-party, but we've got much bigger plans for her party. And plans NEVER go wrong...right?

Learning from the past

Something about Kaylani was a little off last night and today. Last night, she nursed for a real long time before bed, slept for 7 straight hours, but then woke up and fell back asleep twice between the hours of 4am and 6am. Then, she was up at 7:30am for good, and didn't nap until around 4pm, no matter how hard Mommy tried. She didn't nap in the swing, in her arms, or even in the car. And when she finally did nap, it was only for 20 minutes.

Normally we'd think Kaylani was just being a pain, but she actually wasn't a pain today according to Mommy. She wasn't whining or crying, and wasn't overly attached to Mommy, but it was just a long day. There were no signs of new teeth coming out, and no fever to think she was getting sick. It wasn't until she ate up 6oz of food at dinner without a problem that we figured it out. Growth spurt. A quick Google search on growth spurts confirmed our suspicions. There is a 9 month growth spurt. And wouldn't you know it, Kaylani's 3 days away from her 9 month birthday.

They say the best way to make it through a growth spurt is to feed her more. That explains why Kaylani nursed for so long last night. It also explains why she polished off 8oz of food tonight (green bean casserole and apples), still had room to take in about 10 puffs, and drank an ounce or so of water all during dinner. It also explains why she woke up randomly through the night, and why she didn't want to nap during the day.

We were waiting for something like this to happen. Unlike the 3 month and 6 month growth spurts that snuck up on us, we knew this day would come at 9 months just based on the fact that things were going a little too well. She was starting to sleep for 10 hours at a time again and she was eating her food without fussing too much. Before we were the extremely experienced parents that we are now, we would think that she would last like that forever. Now, we're just enjoying it before it goes away. And all signs point to it going away soon.

Hopefully this growth spurt goes by quickly and we can get her back to her normal schedule. Some growth spurts only last a few days. Some last a week. Either way, I just hope it's gone in the next 10 days because that's when Daddy's 1 week vacation from work begins, and vacation with a growth spurt baby isn't what I'm looking forward to. So bring it on growth spurt! Now please?

Relaxing in the Pool

I had a feeling that swim class was going to be different today even before we got there. Alan, Mayte, Nolan, and Kayleb came to visit us this weekend so we were up late hanging out and catching up with them. On top of that, Kaylani decided to wake up around midnight which meant that Mommy had to nurse her back to sleep (we don't let her cry it out when we have guests over). Thankfully she went back to sleep easily, but it also meant she slept until 6:30am instead of waking up sometime before 6. That meant our morning plans were out the window.

We thought we had it all figured out last week. Up before 6, breakfast before 7, in the car at 7, napping by 7:30, up by 8:30, nurse until 8:45, then swim class at 9. Today, it was up at 6:30, breakfast at 7:30, nursing at 8:30, out the door at 8:45, swim class at 9. The key thing missing there was the nap. Mommy's experience during the week with Kaylani has been that she could make it through morning events without a nap. Daddy's experience is kinda different.

We had a different instructor at class today (I didn't even catch her name), so we were more off of our normal Saturday routine. From the get go, Kaylani was a little sluggish in the water. She had her death grip on me and wasn't a big fan of anything that didn't involve her clinging directly to me. You'd think that I wouldn't have dunked her, but I did (she didn't cry which was good). The really odd part of the class came when we were practicing floating on our backs.

Normally, Kaylani would freak out and squirm a lot. Today, she just laid there with her ears and her hair in the water. All of a sudden, she started to close her eyes. I looked at her unbelievably and said "are you going to fall asleep??" She looked at me one last time, closed her eyes, and she was out. Sleeping. On her back. IN the water. I couldn't believe it.

She stayed that way for the next 20 minutes. We did ring around the rosie, and the hokey pokey, and more float on our back time, and the whole time, Kaylani slept floating on her back. At one point, the instructor said we should have them lay on their back and be as still as possible so they learn to relax. The key was to teach them to balance a toy on their belly or their forehead. Kaylani aced that one. She didn't even move when I put a crab toy on her head.

I guess it's a good thing that she felt relaxed enough to sleep in the water. Next week, we're going to take a nap BEFORE class though. Otherwise, it's just no fun (for me that is)!

La magia de Abuela

For the past couple of days, Kaylani has been absolutely amazing. We say that a lot, but this time we REALLY mean it. She's been napping without crying, sleeping at night without crying, sleeping 10-11 hours straight at night, eating fruits (apricots and sweet potatoes) without spitting up, and being as happy as can be.

We have several theories as to what caused this sudden shift in Kaylani's behavior. One of them is that she's just happy to be out of her carseat since she took 10 naps there over the 4 days we were up in Boston/Cape Cod. Another is that being away from home made her realize how great she had it here. It's even possible that she is so happy that Tommy and Gretchen got married that she can finally relax. All of those are great theories, but none of them explain it as well as our last one: Abuela has some sort of magic with her.

Abuela arrived in NJ 2 days ago. She was supposed to arrive tonight after a short trip to DC, but after a luggage mishap left her empty handed, she stayed with us instead. She arrived around 1am on Tuesday morning, and that's when it all started. When Daddy left for work on Tuesday, Kaylani was still sleeping which was odd. She didn't even wake up until 8am. Then, she took 2 naps in her swing without making a peep, ate all her food, and went to sleep the next night at 9pm. This morning, she didn't wake up again until 8am, took only 2 naps, ate 4 meals (that's right - FOUR), and is now off to sleep again quietly. Amazing.

Mommy thinks Kaylani is being so good just to make her look bad. The weeks before Abuela came, Kaylani was causing Mommy to go just a little bit crazy. She wasn't napping, wasn't eating, and was waking up at 5am every morning. But now, she's being a perfect little angel which is why Mommy thinks it's a show. I can see where she's coming from, but I definitely think it's Abuela magic.

Whatever it is, we just hope it stays around for a long time to go. Luckily, Abuela is here for another 10 days. Maybe that'll be enough for us to harness la magia de Abuela for future use. Never hurts to have a little something hanging around!

Best Baby EVER!

I may be slightly biased, but I have the best baby EVER. Sure most parents say that about their baby, but I really mean it. Kaylani's pretty easy most of the time, but yesterday, she solidified herself as best baby EVER. Just how do you earn the title of best baby EVER you ask? Well, it starts with sleep, but encompasses much, much more than that.

After only crying for 20 minutes in a metal, narrow crib in a brand new place for her, she slept for 9 hours. Then, she took a 1 hour nap in her carseat after breakfast, a 1 hour nap in her carseat after lunch, and then a 30 minute nap in her carseat (sensing a pattern here yet?) before we headed to the wedding rehearsal/welcome party dinner. Those naps were the perfect length (well, maybe the 30 minute one could have been longer if Doug hadn't woken her up and scared the living bejeezus out of her when he got in the car) and helped us make it through a long day, but we were only getting started.

The welcome party was held at Swan River in Denisport, MA and started at 7pm. Now, everyone knows that Kaylani's usually in bed by 8pm, so you can bet we were a little worried to be just arriving at a restaurant when normally it would be Kaylani who was sitting down for dinner at that time (and by dinner, I mean nursing). And when you add the fact that there were ~100 people with ~40 of them wanting to say hi to and possibly hold Kaylani, you've got yourself a potentially scary situation, especially with this whole separation anxiety thing. THIS is where Kaylani earned the title of best baby EVER.

Not only did she smile and go with people (after 10 minutes), but she ate her dinner, she nursed, and most importantly, she fell asleep (in her carseat). At around 8:30pm, our time was up. As expected, it was right when the food came out. So Daddy downed his cup of chowdah in one gulp and took Kaylani and her carseat out to another room. After about 10 minutes of playing "human swing" or what I like to call "ow my arm and my back", she was asleep. ASLEEP! With ~100 people talking, music, and waiters/waitresses buzzing by. Not only that, but she stayed asleep all the way until we got home around midnight. Sure she missed out on hanging out with our friends, and she even missed my awesome wedding speech, but it's okay because she was ASLEEP!

To top it all off, she went right back to sleep when we got home after we changed her and nursed her. And the really amazing part? She woke up at her usual 5:30am time, played by herself in our bed for an hour, and then nursed herself back to sleep. It's 7:15am right now and my baby is sleeping. Best...baby...EVER!

Oh, and when I said its about more than just sleep, I was lying. I mean, it is, but the fact that she played nicely, was quiet, cute, cuddly, smiley, and everything else just doesn't matter when she naps well, sleeps in public places, and goes to sleep quietly and by herself at night and in the morning. The real question is...what the heck am I doing awake if everyone else is sleeping? Oh well, guess it's time to get ready for the wedding. T-minus 4.5 hours before I leave, and 6.5 hours before Mommy leaves Kaylani with Yin Yin and Yea Yea for 8 hours so we can enjoy the wedding. It'll be Mommy's first time away for that long, and Kaylani's first time alone without both of us. Sure hope she's still the best baby EVER today...for Yin Yin and Yea Yea's sake!

Down, but not out

Hi, we're in Delaware. Oh wait, that was us 10 hours ago. Now we're in Baltimore and getting ready to wrap up the day. It's just about 8pm and all is dark in our room. Kaylani is nursing for what we hope is her final time tonight, and then we'll see how the rest of the night goes. Luckily we were upgraded to a corner deluxe king room when we got here (thank you Bill Marriott!) so we have a little hallway/foyer that Kaylani will spend the night in (in her pack and play of course). We also have a white noise maker going, a bunch of sheets to block out some of the light, and we're really hoping that's enough. And frankly, it should be since she must be completely exhausted today.

She woke up around 6:30am. After getting her ready to go and putting the finishing touches on our luggage, we hit the road right around 8:30am. GPS had us arriving in Baltimore at 11am which was fine by us. The plan was to have Kaylani sleep for a solid 2 hours in the car and we'd be set for the rest of the day. And at 9am when she finally fell asleep, the plan looked like it was going to work...all the way until she woke up 40 minutes later. The odd part was that she was quiet for the next hour and a half. We stopped at a rest stop just 20 minutes outside Baltimore just to make sure we didn't have a car freak-out, but thankfully it never materialized.

After getting settled in our hotel room we walked out to the Inner Harbor around 12:30pm. Within 15 minutes Kaylani was out again which we again thought was perfect. And again, 40 minutes later, she was awake (timed inconveniently with our food showing up at lunch). And again, she lay silently in her stroller for a good 30 minutes before making a peep. That brought us up to 1:10 minutes of naps and 2 hours of quiet time. Odd ratio, but we'll take it.

We finished off the day with some time in a grassy knoll (which reaffirmed for us her hatred of grass), a walk around the rest of the Inner Harbor, a quick nursing/Starbucks break, and then back to the hotel. On the way back, Kaylani passed out in her Bjorn, which we thought was going to be good again. But this time, after only 30 minutes, she was back up.

Now it's 8:10pm and she's crying in her pack and play. She passed out after only nursing for 10 minutes so maybe she's hungry, or more likely, she's over tired. It's been a long day of her going down, but never quite passing out. And all of that means we're entering a night of a lot of unknowns, which is never a good thing. But what else would we expect from our first family vacation? Guess we'll just wait and see how tomorrow goes.

Sleeping through the noise

The past few nights have been challenging for us. Kaylani has decided that she would rather scream for 2 hours at night instead of sleeping, which means of course that Mommy and Daddy lay awake in bed listening to her. Over the weekend, Kaylani is manageable without sleep because there are two of us with her. But today, Mommy was left to deal with a non-sleeping, over tired Kaylani all by herself. Well, all by herself plus 4 contractors who came to fix our basement water problem.

If I had to describe the ideal support system to help Mommy get through a potentially long day, it would probably not include four contractors, 2 jackhammers, 180' of piping, 2 new sump pumps, a "dust vacuum", and a truck full of stone, but that's what Mommy got today. Needless to say we were a bit worried about how Kaylani would (or would not) nap with all the chaos (pronounced "cows" if you're Mommy) going on in the house. But again, Kaylani surprised us.

Kaylani was up for the day around 8am (after crying between 12-2am, and waking up again at 6), which meant naptime should have been around 11am. The contractors showed up at 9:30am, and after setting up, they were ready to start jackhammering around 11am. Great. And surprise surprise, Kaylani fell asleep just fine. With all the noise, all the jackhammering, all the craziness, she slept. Like a log in her swing. For 2 hours, which is a great morning nap!

Daddy had plans to work from home in the afternoon just in case Mommy and Kaylani needed to get out of the house, but wouldn't you know it, she napped for 1.5 hours again in the afternoon in her swing. With all the noise and the cows, I mean chaos. So here we are at 8pm and she's out again. It doesn't look like she's going to wake up and finish nursing so I better wrap it up. Let's hope she's back on schedule now. Or worst case, let's hope she can handle the cows tomorrow too. Mooooooooooo.

Seat's Taken

It's been 52 hours since we left home on Friday night to head up to Boston for the weekend. And of those 52 hours, Kaylani spent 23 of them in her carseat. To put it in Asian/mathematical terms, she spent nearly 50% of her time away from home (okay fine, it's 44%) in her carseat. 12 of them are accounted for in the drive between NJ and Boston. But where did the other 11 come from?

We drove around quite a bit while we were in Boston, but everyone we visited was within a 15 minute car ride. So the fact that we made 5 different stops, most of them being back to back instead of roundtrip, totals to just about 2 hours. That leaves about 9 hours that Kaylani spent in her carseat, and none of those 9 hours were actually in a car.

Being away from home meant that we were limited to the places we could put Kaylani down. Sure she could lay on a couch or a bed or even a blanket on the floor while we were out, but there was little possbility that she would have napped in any of those places. That meant Kaylani's naps while we were out (which was all the time) were in the comfort of her carseat. And I use the word "comfort" in the loosest of terms because each time went something like this:

Go in the carseat and look around. Get out of the carseat and get held by people. Get real tired and get put back in the carseat. Cry a bit and get swung around in the carseat. Time to go and get put back in the carseat. Fall asleep in the car for about 5 minutes. Get woken up because we're at our next destination and start the cycle again.

On the rare occasions Kaylani would fall asleep because she was so tired from us screwing with her nap schedule, it would be in her carseat. Since it's not particularly comfortable and she's used to moving around in her crib, each nap lasted no more than an hour in length, and more often than not, lasted about 5 minutes. So 9 hours of Kaylani's weekend were spent napping, swinging, or just sitting in her carseat. Sounds like a blast right?

After Kaylani finally fell asleep on our ride home (after Mommy nursed her because she cried for the first 30 minutes), she woke up 2 hours later which was great, except we were still 2 hours from home. We did our best to distract her, but when she cried the last 40 minutes, even after we stopped for a quick dinner because she was crying already, we didn't complain. I would have done the same thing if I was in her position. But now we're home and we promised Kaylani that she wouldn't have to go back in her carseat again...until Tuesday.

Anyways, I'll try and post pictures from the weekend tomorrow. It's pretty late for all of us and I have to wake up Mommy and Kaylani and put them both to bed. Hopefully I can do it gently since Kaylani and Mommy are both sleeping while nursing. Luckily for Kaylani, she gets to sleep in her own crib tonight. Hopefully she'll actually sleep for a long time so Mommy can sleep in her own bed tonight too. But whatever happens, it's still better than being in a carseat.