What doesn't kill me...

Makes me stronger. At least that's my mantra right now along with: "Baked goods make everything better" Is it really possible for a chocolate chip cookie to restore one's sanity? I'm going with: yes.




I have just emerged from a battle of wills with the Dragon. Today it only took an hour and a half. Yesterday: Two. Hours. I used to think that I might possibly be one of the most stubborn people in the world, but Audrey has been testing the waters with an amazing will since we started our sleep training project (which, by the way, I started on Sunday, so I've had several days to be slowly driven crazy). She's like the Velociraptor from Jurassic Park, systematically testing the fence for weaknesses! I've got to keep my guard up with this kid and I don't see that ending anytime in the near future.

But seriously, being confined to the same small room with an uncooperative Dragon, singing Baby Beluga...for hours...can make one start to question all kinds of things. I find myself wondering if this plan is actually going to work or wondering if there's another reason why she's crying. To top it off, once the crazy kid is laying in her crib, has actually stopped crying, her eyes are closed and she's breathing normally. I'm starting to think silly thoughts like, maybe I can leave the room and go eat a cookie...Then the eye lids start to creep open!
From there, my thought process goes a little something like this: Oh, no...don't make any sudden movements. Is it possible to hold your breath and hum Baby Beluga at the same time? No. Oh, God, my arm is starting to go numb. Don't move. I can't feel my pinky...maybe if I just move realllly slowly, she won't notice. Oh good, she's not paying attention.
Que Audrey: Eyes popped wide open, big grin on her face and a huge squirm in her Houdini-proof swaddle. Is it time to play yet?
...and it's the hardest thing not to say YES! To top off being stubborn, she's just too darn cute!

God Bless the Baby Whisperer!

First, an important update: Audrey eats food now! She just lets the spoon do all the work!



The real reason for this post is that I have recently come to the conclusion that I'm doing it wrong, or rather, that I could be doing it better--parenting, that is. I usually pride myself on being a well informed individual, but when it came to babies, I really dropped the ball on researching the whole what-do-I-do-now-that-I've-got-a-kid part. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm a bad mother, actually, considering the amount of experience I've had with babies in the past, (zip, zero, nada) I'm doing pretty darn well just flying by the seat of my pants. But, always in search of the dream scenario, I've decided that it's not cutting it--I can always do better. (...and a big thanks to my Dad for that lesson!)

The crux of this whole issue, I guess, stemmed from Audrey's sleeping issues--namely, that she fights sleep like nobody's business and I really don't want to still be dancing her to sleep when she's 3 years old. Enter The Baby Whisperer! (who I came upon looking for a solution not involving crying it out) I've only been reading her books for a few days now, but wow! Talk about making babies make sense. She's broken down baby temperaments into 5 categories, of which, Audrey fits as a "spirited" baby. (are we really surprised?) I know my posts have a tendency to get long-winded, but I have to share an excerpt from her description:

"When spirited babies want something, they want it now! Opinionated, very vocal, and often stubborn, their moods are mercurial, going quickly from happy to sad and back again. They love the action but also tend to overdo it, which can lead to a meltdown. If spirited children sound like they're challenging, they are. But properly handled they are also born leaders."

...That's Audrey...and it's also just the tip of the iceburg.

So, now that I've got a better understanding of Audrey's temperament and how spirited babies typically handle situations, I'm diving head-first into a 10-day sleep training (sure-to-be-nightmare) endeavor...starting Tuesday. This means, I probably won't be doing any cleaning, laundry, reading or making phone calls (unless it's to John asking him why I decided to take the hard way...again) Hopefully, the result will be a happier baby and mama, both who will be sleeping more consistently. Wish me luck! Maybe I'll have the energy to post to give updates on how it's going. If not, I'll see you on the other side!

Don't forget

Check out our Christmas Picasa Album at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GGamelin/ChristmasInTheOzarks#

A January Album will be coming soon!

Yes, it's taken this long

...to write an update. I keep trying to write posts, which I then abandon because it gets so long winded. So much has happened in the past month! Audrey had her 4 month appointment (At 4 months, 3 weeks) weighing in at 16 lbs. 3 oz, and is 27 inches long. She's still in the 90th & 97th percentiles--is anyone really surprised?

We took our big trip to the Midwest for Christmas and everything went well--there were definitely things that could've gone better. For instance, John could've been carrying dark chocolate squares in his pocket to pop into my mouth when I started getting crabby (crabby being an understatement) on our first flight to Denver. We never fully realized that breakfast is the most important meal of the day for me until I skipped it and decided to travel a couple thousand miles with a baby. That's just a lesson that had to be learned the hard way. It turns out, I'm more pleasant to be around during 13 hours of natural labor as opposed to a two hour plane ride with no snacks. But the low blood sugar and verbal abuse (for John) was worth it to see so many friends and family. Audrey was spoiled beyond belief for Christmas. We ended up shipping back two boxes and had a second Christmas when they got to the house in Kennewick.

(p.s. the return flight was much more pleasant and involved no bouts of hysteria and hardly any complaining. There was also lots and lots of chocolate--trust me, it helps.)

In other news: Audrey is changing so quickly, it's hard to keep up. In the last few weeks, she has gone from wanting nothing to do with sitting still to sitting like a frog and now being able to support herself sitting up most of the time. Rolling over is old news--she is now trying to figure out this whole crawling thing. She's been able to squirm her way across the floor to toys and is working on pushing her torso up and getting that fluffy butt up with her knees. We've decided it's time to seriously get on top of the baby proofing project.

New Years Eve for us was laid back this year; we ate a lot of snacks and hung out with our friends George and April and their two boys Lucas and Graydon. It was nice to hear little kid squeals and running feet in the house; it makes me look forward to the chaos that my life will become with several kids.

Well, I've already busted one of my two New Year's Resolutions (to finish an update for the blog by the New Year) My other Resolution this year is more serious (not to mention more realistic): to live my life according to God's plans. I figure it's the surest way to actually keep a resolution. Whatever plans I think I have in place, God usually finds a way to make them better whether I can see it or not.

I hope everyone had a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year! Now that I've gotten the big stuff out of the way, I hope to update more often about the silly little every day things my life revolves around.

December Pictures

Whoo! I'm running behind! Here's the link to December's photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GGamelin/December2008#

It's pretty sparse right now, but stay tuned for more!

I'm growing what!?!?

Teeth! That's right, the Dragon is teething...and has been for the past five days. It has been exhausting to say the least. Through a series of trial and error, we have finally found a few things that can placate Audrey while she's going through this ordeal. She's been sucking on bibs, fingers, teething rings, cold washcloths and even carrots (yes, carrots!) When those don't work, we've been using teething tablets and then baby Tylenol when she's absolutely inconsolable.

I had been trying to do things the hard way for several days, having Audrey chew on things to help with the pain instead of using any kind of medication. My line of thinking was if I gave her something for the pain, she wouldn't get used to the discomfort of teething and then all the future teeth would be just as hard to deal with (make any sense?...didn't think so.) Well, after 6 straight hours of no napping, hardly eating and lots of crying, I'm singing a different tune. It goes a little something like this: just do anything to make the kid happy! That includes the use of OTC Drugs to mask her symptoms and I'm A-Okay with it.

After that morning, I was thanking God I have the world's best husband. All it took was one thinly veiled emailed cry for help and he was on the phone rallying the Schweighardt troops to sponsor a Mom's day out this Saturday including a much needed haircut and massage. It also helps that I'll be making Christmas goodies with a friend of mine the day before, so I can relax and enjoy some homemade cookies. If Audrey has cut a tooth by then, maybe I'll let her have one too!

Happy December!

I can't believe it's December already and you all know what that means: EGGNOG!! ...oh, and Emily's Birthday...and Christmas...and pie. (yes, these are a few of my favorite things.)
We're getting really excited about our trip to Arkansas for Christmas, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up that everything will go as planned. Two years ago at Christmas John and I ended up in a mess when a huge snowstorm hit Denver and our flights were canceled. Our revised trip involved a hectic scene with lots of yelling in a rental car in the pouring rain/sleet, trying to figure out the windshield wipers and almost running over a set of road spikes while figuring out how to get the heck out of Portland. So, basically, if we make it to Springfield and that hasn't happened, it should be a pretty good trip. We're hoping Audrey does just as well traveling half way across the country as she did for our trip to Seattle. (I'm not holding my breath on that one.)

Little A can roll over like a fiend now, but is stranded once she gets onto her belly. Her new favorite game is to roll from her back to her belly, grunt and buzz her lips while holding her head up, start to protest because she doesn't want to be on her belly anymore and then when I roll her onto her back to rest she immediately rolls onto her belly again...wash, rinse, repeat. I'm torn between wanting her to figure out how to roll back to her back so I don't have to keep flipping her around and wanting her to just stay as immobile as possible for as long as possible. I have mental images of Audrey rolling away when I have my back turned for a second and after a few minutes of searching, I'll find her in the kitchen with Caba trying to figure out how to open the refrigerator. (And you think that's an irrational fear)

A few more discoveries The Dragon has been perfecting recently are: how to jump in her jumperoo and buzzing her lips (she's gonna be a brass player!) I can't tell you how many times over the past few days Audrey has been in her crib (supposedly napping) or actually amusing herself in her carseat and out of dead silence I start to hear buzzing. It's hysterical and amazingly messy. If you thought drooling was a problem, wait until you've seen Audrey's projectile spittle. We're now finding there was a use for all 396 bibs we received as gifts.

I caught some video of Audrey in her jumper--it's not anything spectacular, but I figure it'd be neat for people to see the difference between the first video we posted and how much she's advanced since then. Enjoy!