Cameron starts to get mobile

Cameron has been a rolling fool for the past few weeks. I turn around and the next thing I know she has rolled clear off the blanket and under the coffee table. While she normally rolls right to left she has no problem rolling in whatever direction gets her closer to a toy or some other object of interest. She has also started turning herself 360 degrees while on her tummy. So her head stays in one spot and she manages to swing her whole body around. What does this mean? Crawling is soon to come, I'm sure. I have a feeling she will be doing commando style crawling first (just using her arms) but she could surprise me.

DH is convinced that her second bottom tooth is coming in. I'm not so sure but her intake of bottles is down again so he is probably right. Cameron has also decided that 5 AM is the perfect time for a bottle. She usually goes right back to sleep but it throws my whole morning off. Anyone have any suggestions for how to get her to sleep an extra hour? Or at least assure me this is just a phase?

Cameron reads her book, just like mommy.

Cameron's hair is starting to get poofy. But I am a long ways off from cutting it, unlike A.
Cameron starts a roll.

Almost back to her tummy.

Success!

Video proof of a rolling fool.

Putting my foot down about nap time

This morning DH and I shared drop off duties for Cameron. I really like this part of the week because usually it is the only time that I get to see Cameron's main teacher, Miss Tanya, who has usually left for the day when I come in to pick her up. Sometimes I send DH in with instructions for Tanya but hey, I'm a mom and I like to talk with Cameron's other primary caregiver too.

Of course Miss Tanya sees me coming and probably wants to hide because I usually do have questions or instructions related to Cameron's care. I can't help it. I know my baby best and I still have residual concerns about having her in a facility with 9 other infants and a 5:1 infant to teacher ratio.

DH and I entered the room and he went off to take Cameron out of her carrier and get her settled. I puttered around putting her bottles in the fridge and new diapers in her cubby. Miss Tanya was changing one of the other babies. We exchanged general pleasantries and then I launched into my question:

Me: Now that Cameron is six months old, do you start putting her down on a nap schedule?
Miss Tanya: Well, usually they just fall into it on their own.
Me: Obviously that isn't the case for Cameron [forced smile]. She naps on a schedule at home but doesn't here. [side note - she slept only 40 minutes at daycare on Wednesday. 40 minutes!]
Miss Tanya: What time do you put her down?
Me: It depends on when she wakes up but her first nap is within 2 hours of her waking up. She was awake at 6 AM so no later than 8:30 AM.
Miss Tanya: That's right around feeding time.
Me, in my head: So freaking what? Can't you put her in her crib for a nap while you are feeding the other kids? And what, you have a feeding schedule but not a nap schedule????
Me: Well, I guess no later than 9 AM then.

Perhaps not the most forceful of conversations but I hope I got my point across. This all came about because I had lunch with my friend Amanda and shared my concerns about Cameron's lack of napping. No other child seems to have issues. Isn't it great to have friends where you can share the details of your baby's life and get interested responses? I mentioned that they let her fall asleep first and then move her to her crib. Is it any wonder that Cameron wakes up and doesn't want to nap?

DH, of course, mentally rolled his eyes when I talked with him about this. He figures it's not a big deal. But it totally is! If she sleeps for me then she should be sleeping at daycare too. The teachers just need to do a better job of putting her down consistently. Sure she may cry for a while but 40 minutes of naps a day isn't going to cut it. So, what do you all think? Am I overreacting or do I need to stay on top of this? Have you run into this issue before and how did you address it with your daycare?

Being a baseball widow

I've mentioned many times in this blog that DH is a baseball fan. No, he deserves the un-shortened version of the word: fanatic. He is obsessed with all things baseball, but especially his beloved Yankees. Since April I have suffered along with DH as he managed his two fantasy baseball teams. Well, three but one was free so he didn't really talk about that one. I suffered because I had to hear in detail about how his team wasn't doing as well as it should because of the "stupid" things that the other team owners did. Or how luck the other teams were. Or how unlucky DH was. I heard stats and possible outcomes until my eyes glazed over. Per usual he made too many trades when he should have just left his team alone. But he did manage to eek out a second place win in one league. I had to hear about the tight race for second every night for the past two weeks as he constantly checked his line up, StatTracker and wavered on picking up new pitchers. It was torture for both of us.

So you can imagine my relief when I was told this past weekend that fantasy baseball was over. Well, until next year. The only problem? Now it is the post season and the Yankees are entering it with the best record in baseball. What does that mean for me? Y'all (yes, I live in the South now) know how much I love TV right? Usually I can tape two shows at one time while we watch a pre-recorded one. Not when the Yankees are in the post-season! DH informed me in no uncertain terms that he is watching every minute of the post season on our flat screen HDTV. I can't fault him for that. It is way better than our other TV. My only problem is that we don't have a Fios-type system so I can't watch any DVR'd shows in the other room. Thank goodness for Hulu. I was able to watch FlashForward from last week. DH stopped Glee from recording because it overlapped with Modern Family and would interfere with the live game. Fortunately Hulu carries Glee episodes.

Is it any wonder I hope that the Yankees lose quickly in the post season? Well, I am a Red Sox fan too....

Time to start saving for those braces

Apparently I picked the worst time ever to do cry it out with Cameron. She has been fighting a cold and teething. My excuse? I only knew about the cold. Yup, last night I discovered that Cameron has her first tooth! I let her suck on my finger and there it was. A teeny, tiny tooth just poking out from her gums.

I have mentioned in a few other posts about the dramatic reduction in Cameron's ounces. Turns out that part of the reason was due to teething. She had a much better day yesterday with 24 ounces. I guess once that tooth popped through she felt much better and wanted to eat again.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that we didn't have much sign that Cameron was teething. I did suspect that something was up and gave her some Motrin for the last two nights. But she didn't chew on things more frequently or start drooling more than normal. She only woke up once a night smooshed up against her crib railing and needing a little rescue. Nothing that would indicate that my baby is now sporting a single bottom tooth.

I guess DH and I are just blessed with a happy, healthy baby who isn't bothered by little things like teething or ear infections. And here's hoping I didn't just curse us by writing that down! Cameron continues her trend of being perfectly average with her first tooth just after she passed the six month mark. I wonder how quickly it's mate will pop in?

Starting to see some success

While CIO hasn't been a raging success, it has been getting better. This weekend was a big challenge because it is the first time Cameron would go down for naps without being swaddled. Now, this isn't quite true. Daycare did a crappy job of swaddling her so basically she wasn't swaddled for her naps there. But in our house she was a baby burrito. Cameron did pretty well. She napped 60-90 minutes at a stretch three times each day. There wasn't any crying because she was definitely tired and a couple minutes of rocking later she was out like a light.

Other than naps I did have to go in and rock her back to sleep on Saturday night. She was inconsolable and I just couldn't stay away. DH did a pacifier insertion at 3 AM last night. When I scolded him and said it wasn't in the spirit of CIO he responded, "One trip to her room? That's nothing! She went 8 hours. That's great!" True, DH, true. Let's just hope it doesn't start being 2-3 times a night. Cause then we're starting all over again!

Per usual I have been remiss in posting photos. Cameron has lots of cute clothes that are much more appropriate for the cooler weather. So even though we aren't quite in her new 6-9 month clothes I've been able to dress her up in stuff that's new for us.

Cameron practices her mischievous look.

Wearing a hoodie. DH is so proud!
Cameron is always happy when she gets to spend lots of time with Mommy and Daddy.

Now I understand Mommy, Esq. a little better

We continue to make minor advances with cry it out. Cameron only fussed from 4:30 to 6:30 AM. But her latest trick is to refuse eating. Yup, my child has decided that bottles are not for her. I still have breast milk that she's eating in addition to formula and she is refusing both equally. So my guilt (damn you, mommy guilt!) over stopping breastfeeding is somewhat mitigated.

Yesterday Cameron ate only 4 ounces at daycare plus two solid feedings. For the past two weeks it has been a struggle to get her to eat her bottles in general but it was never as bad as what happened yesterday. I've been sending her in with 4 ounce bottles, down from her high of 5 ounces, with the hope that a slight reduction in amount coupled with stretching it out to 3 1/2 or 4 hours (from 3 hour increments) would get her to "clean her plate." No such luck.

If I'm lucky Cameron will take 6 ounces in the morning for me, 8 ounces at daycare and another 7 ounces (split between two bottles) at night. That's only 21 ounces! Gah. So frustrating. This is what Mommy, Esq. has been dealing with for over a year? I'm already sick of worrying about it and it's only been a couple of weeks for us!

I talked with her teacher today and said that if Cameron didn't finish her first bottle that she shouldn't be offered a solid food lunch. Perhaps that will help? My concern is that I know she should be getting the majority of nutrients from bottles, not solid food. And frankly, she should be hungry for it! It's not like she is getting a ton of solid food. 1/2 jar plus an equal amount of rice cereal. It is certainly not enough to sustain her alone.

It would be nice if I wasn't worrying about this alone but DH seems to think it's not a big deal. True, if it happened only once or twice I wouldn't be as concerned but it's been weeks. Has anyone else been down this path? I expected that Cameron would be up to 6 ounce bottles at this point, not down to 4! Please tell me that it will get better....

Staying strong with a pillow over my head

Cry it out has been challenging. Night Two was about on par with Night One except for one thing: Cameron has a cold. I gave her a bit of Benadryl to alleviate her congestion and needless to say, she slept great for the first few hours. But then between the hours of 3 AM and 6:30 AM she was up off and on. I gritted my teeth and pulled my pillow over my head. After all, it wouldn't be good if we were both exhausted by CIO, right? And that's where I'm really struggling. My poor baby is definitely tired. She used to greet me every morning wreathed in smiles. Now she cries until I can pop her bottle in. And she cries a lot more easily in the evenings. I know it's because she is a little sick and very tired but it just breaks my heart.

But I am two nights in and I refuse to back down, dammit! I've told DH that he will need to bring a second pillow into his sleeping arrangement so he can stay strong as well. I'm hopeful we will have a breakthrough by this weekend. I'm giving it a week and if she is still miserable I will reassess and consider re instituting the swaddle. So please send good, soothing thoughts our way as we tackle Night Three (with Daddy!) tonight.