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6/23/05

It was a good night and a nice day. Cara and I were up from about three to three-thirty, and then we slept until about eight. Cara slept for a while during the morning, and then she had a nice bath. She wore a cute outfit today, a two-piece ensemble with flowers on the panties and a purple top with hippos on it. It went very nicely with Cara's purple hippo, her favorite toy.

In the afternoon we did some errands and played for a while. We did the groceries and we went to the library, were we got some new baby CDs. I've listened to at least part of each of them, and they're nice but they're no Hap Palmer, let me tell you. One is songs of the world, and it teaches you to count in various languages as well as how to say silly phrases. Another is animals from A to Z, and it has silly songs in which armadillos talk about how much they love aerobics, and so on. The third is by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the South African group that worked on Graceland with Paul Simon, which is a fabulous album. While I like the group's vocals, there is too much talking on the album. Cara may appreciate being told stories later on, but right now she just wants some music to bop and bobble around to. What I got today doesn't have a high bobble-rating. I'll give it all a second chance, but I'm disappointed.

Cara snoozed long enough for me to make dinner, but she woke up while we were eating. I brought her down and she sat in her bouncer, looking around, hiccuping, and vibrating while working very hard on her popper. She was good for the whole meal and most of the cleanup.

Cara wasn't good for Daddy when he gave her her bottle, but she finished it for me when I came downstairs. She took about five and a half ounces! We played with her toys for a while and then she got fussy; I thought she would go to sleep if I fed her, but she ate and then stayed awake, the little fink! Eventually we concluded that she was tired but was mad about going to sleep, so we put her in her sleep sack, turned down the lights, gave her a popper, and put on her Classical Music CD. It is nice to be able to watch her drift off. Now, of course, twenty minutes later, she's up again. I hope her popper takes!

I assume, of course, that I will be feeding her again and putting her down around 11:20, as I have for the past three or four nights.

By the way, Cara had another bowel movement this evening! Perhaps there is a pattern: a long, long hiatus and then a few days of activity.

I imagine that we will eventually burn the whole web site onto a CD and put a copy in Cara's baby book. Perhaps I will go through it and edit out the bowel movements, as long as we keep a copy of the original to use on Cara as blackmail.

6/24/05

Cara slept from eleven till six, like a good girl. We were very busy today. I took her out for a walk in her front carrier around eight thirty, and we picked up milk at the corner store. We'd never been there before. It pretty much just sells soda and twinkies; I was lucky they even had milk! The lady there is pregnant, and we discussed the baby items she had and planned to register for.

Although Cara was pretty awake today, I managed to vacuum the whole house and wash the windows (inside only, mostly, because I have to figure out how to take the screens out) in between playing with her. She spent quite a bit of time sitting in her bouncer and looking at things. She was a good girl.

We got a beautiful sweater from my grandma's cousin Penny, and Penny sent a rattle, too. It's shaped like a bottle with a handle, and if I stick her fingers through the handle and sort of move her thumb over, Cara holds it and waves it around. Of course, she has no idea that she's holding it, so she bangs herself in the head, but it's still cool.

Finally, around five, having listened to Hap Palmer about five times and the Animals A to Z twice, we got tuckered out. We both took a nap on the floor for about an hour, though Cara slept only fitfully and I had to keep putting her popper back in. We got up at six, and Steve got home just in time to be the leg man for Cara's VERY dirty diaper. It helps to have someone to keep her feet out of the mess. Having done both jobs, I have decided that I prefer to be the wiper.

Steve gave Cara a bottle, and she took about five and a half ounces. Now he has taken her upstairs; she may have fallen asleep. I don't think she has slept more than half an hour together today, so I'm highly skeptical. I really don't trust her to sleep until about eleven.

Tomorrow night Steve and I are going to a concert in Atlantic City, and my parents are going to baby-sit. I am planning out all the things I will have to tell them about where things are and how things work. I worry that Cara won't go to sleep for the night without me, but really she'll probably be fine. The cool thing is that she'll be taking formula all evening instead of me feeding her, so we'll know how much she actually eats! Since I have spent all day feeding her AT LEAST every two hours, I am eager to know her actual intake.

It turns out that Steve took Cara upstairs and read a book to her. We have a nice counting book about animals, and she looked at the pictures. Isn't Steve great? We'd both been reading parenting books that talked about reading to babies from birth, and we felt like we'd already missed the boat and scarred Cara for life.

6/25/05

2:00

It got pretty hot, I guess, yesterday, and I think Cara was feeling it. One cute thing was that, when I changed her outfit, she seemed to really enjoy being naked (except for her trusty diaper) for a while. She frolicked--I really feel that that word does describe what she does, except for the fact that she's lying down--on her changing table in the nude for quite a while, even seeming to appreciate a breeze that came in through the window. It was really cute; I got to tickle her tummy.

In the night, though, it was very unpleasantly hot in her room. I think that the heat slowly builds up through the day, so that even though it's cool outside, on the upper floor of the house it's nasty. She was upset while I was trying to feed her, so I turned the fan on us and she got very happy and ate. So much for her hating air currents! I was worried because I couldn't put her in her sleep sack, but she slept through the night in her little white onesie.

We got some really cute pictures of her playing in her crib last night; we even caught a big smile. Cara can't have a toothy smile yet, but she can smile with tongue. The pictures have been posted already. I know that we really do need to reorganize those photos to make them more accessible, but the extent of my expertise with this program is about reached by writing and posting entries. Every week, Steve has to make a new page for me to write on.

Here's a weird thing that I forgot. When I went to school with Cara on Wednesday, the librarian and I were talking. She said that when her son was little, she remembers, Michael Jordan or whoever was the big basketball star at the time tried to spend three hours doing what infants do, just kind of moving around the way that they do, wriggling the hands and feet and I guess flapping around, and that he couldn't do it or at least said that it was really exhausting. Has anybody heard about this? It seems a little odd, but it does make sense. I mean, Cara's always working hard.

Cara has been pretty sleepy so far today, which makes sense, given how much she was up yesterday. She has had a bath and has played for a while (the Hap Palmer count is at two iterations) and has slept on her own for a few hours. Of course she'd have a day like this when Steve is home!

I think that I have everything ready for my parents for tonight. I'm going to leave this program open and see if they'll post!

6/26/05

6:45 pm

For the moment, we'll hold off on posting about today, but here is a post from George about his and Janet's night with Cara:

Cara is an amazingly good baby! She's quiet and very nice. We arrived at about 5 P.M. and Janet (mostly) played with Cara. She's so different from just a month or so ago when she spent most of the time crying and needing holding, stimulation, or food. Now she's really into the process of learning the things around her, one of them being the music.

I went through the music selection and after one Hap Palmer CD, I went downstairs to the living room. After a while Janet and Cara followed. Janet put Cara into her carrier, and Cara was on the living room floor, looking around and being quite contented as anÊAnimal Alphabet CD played. I then put on Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, and Cara was a little upset, I suspect at the incomprehensible complexity of the sound. But she seemed to settle down after the main theme (Da Da Da Daaa, Da Da Da Daaa) was settled in the music.

After this experience, at about 7:15, Cara noticed that she was hungry so I put together seven ounces of formula. For the next half hour, Cara and I sat on the glider as she fought through the meal, alternately screaming with frustration and then falling asleep.

A small amusing thing (to me): at one point I was on the glider feeding Cara when I had an urge to communicate with Janet who was downstairs in the kitchen. So I yelled to her, loud. Cara didn't like that one bit. It took a whole minute and a half for her to calm down. This proves that her parents don't shout at each other, which is good.

One sleep episode seemed so strong that I put her in her crib and covered her up, then tiptoed out of the room--but it was just a fake. Cara was still hungry and took another ounce or two. In total she had more than five ounces of formula. She fell asleep for real at 8 P.M. and we figured she'd sleep for an hour or so.

At 1:15 A.M. when Evie and Steve got home, Cara was still asleep! Evie tells me that at that point Cara woke up and had a feeding, this time from her mommy, and then went back to sleep. She awoke at 8:30 A.M. on Sunday! That's 12 hours of sleep with one interruption.

Janet and I drove home in the Prius, late at night, and got 49.3 miles per gallon on the trip.

9:30

(Evelyn again)

Yes, I was very frustrated by Cara's persistence in sleeping yesterday! I had hoped that she would have at least two bottles, so I could see how much she ate, but instead she apparently waited for me to get home and woke up hungry! It was a good thing, actually, because I DID need to feed her. We both went to sleep at two in the morning and slept till 8:30, as my dad said.

Cara was pretty awake today, but I don't think I've had Hap Palmer on at all. We've played and snuggled and wrassled without him. Cara is really into her bouncer these days. I think that she may be deliberately kicking the hanging toys! Also, her relationship with her flappers is DEFINITELY changing. Steve and I both think that she's looking at them, and she's certainly working harder on putting them in her mouth. Unfortunately, she is putting the entire fist into her mouth, sometimes backwards, and it really doesn't work out. In addition to this, Cara is drooling copiously. Blowing bubbles seems to be her new hobby.

Today we went out as a family to visit our former neighbor Wayne, Steve's piano teacher, and to hit Barnes and Noble to use Steve's Father's Day gift certificate. Wayne's apartment is not air conditioned, and Cara got a little upset. I took her out of her car seat and we danced until she fell asleep. We took our stroller over to Barnes and Noble, where Cara and I looked at lots of things while Steve made his selections. Cara made out like a bandit, though, because we got two nice cardboard baby books to finish up the gift card. In one book, tabs pop out when you push in the right place, telling you about animals. In the other book, animals play peek-a-boo and pop out at you. Both books seem fairly well-constructed and are not really as delicate as they sound. I'm sure they'll eventually be destroyed anyway.

In the car on the way home, Cara got quite mad. We feel that she hates her car seat when it's hot (the digital temperature readout for the outside temperature said 100 for a minute!). When we got home we took her upstairs and put her on her changing table with the fan on her while we changed her out of her sweaty little onesie. She cooled down and felt better.

I got Cara to do some tummy time today on her boppy, propped up with her arms and head laid over the pillow. She held her head up and looked around; I made her hippo dance gently for her and she followed it with her head. The interesting part was that she was drooling, so the drool made a zig-zag pattern back and forth across the boppy. It was fun while it lasted, but soon she got tired. I really really resolve to do that every day at least once, so she'll use those muscles! (Not the drool muscles, they're doing fine.)

This evening we settled down to watch a movie after giving Cara her bottle. I was dancing with her and she went to sleep, so I sat down and she slept on my chest. She gradually burrowed her way off to the side and was sleeping with her face buried in my armpit. Just now she slowly woke up, with a lot of squirming and burrowing which resulted in her writhing her way down to my forearm, which she proceeded to loudly suck on with great relish while Steve and I ate popcorn and laughed at her.

Now my arm has been wiped down and it's time for me to get ready for bed and feed that baby.

6/27/05

I know it seems ridiculous, but Cara was fussy last night and she was lying in her crib squirming around and crying and making trouble and I was about to pick her up and try feeding her (again) to pt her to sleep, when 11:20 came and she suddenly dropped off. She slept nicely to 7:30 or so.

Cara and I played all morning, and she sat nicely in her bouncer while I changed the gerbil's cage. She is definitely getting more independent; usually I have to hurry through the last steps and I've had to skip scrubbing out the water bottle the past couple of weeks (don't tell!) because she was crying, but this week I got everything done. Cara then had a bath and very angrily peed on her towel and new diaper. She likes the bath a lot, but she gets mad when you take her out!

Cara did tummy time twice today, briefly, and bobbled her head around very well before getting mad.

Today I had to go to school, and it's a good thing I did, because the sub hadn't labeled any of my furniture and it would all have been stolen. Steve's parents came up and stayed with Cara. They also brought me lunch, and they got stuck in traffic on a horrible rainy day. Really, as far as in-laws go, I could not possibly have been more fortunate! Cara is definitely well-supplied with first-class grandparents.

Cara slept for much of the afternoon and sat in her bouncer while Steve and I had dinner. We watched a movie tonight, too (we're really going wild, I know), and Cara has been sitting in her bouncer, watching her lion dance and looking at her ceiling fan. She's a good little girl.

6/28/05

4:30

Cara went to sleep early last night; I put her down and went to bed at 11:14! She slept until about 6:30, which is fine with me. I like to get up early, and I feel bad about myself if, as I have done the past few days, I sleep past seven. However, it's also nice when I get up early and Cara sleeps late! In a way, I think Cara may feel that she's getting up in the night. I feed her in the morning, and she seems to go back to sleep pretty nicely then for a couple of hours. Maybe, for her, it's still nighttime sleep.

I trimmed her nails this morning. I have figured out how to do this pretty well. Because I'm so terribly nearsighted, I have much better vision close-up without my glasses or contact lenses. I think that I can see close-up with a better magnification than most people, in fact. So, when I want to cut Cara's tiny nails, I leave my contact lenses off in the morning, although they're usually in before I do almost anything else, wait until she's quite asleep, turn on the big light, and take off my glasses. It works admirably.

After Cara woke up, around 9:45, I fed her and we started our chores for the day. Cara and Shelby and I have been quite busy. Cara and I went and did the groceries. It was a big shopping trip, and I stocked up on a lot of things that were on sale (yay!). I talk to Cara a lot in the supermarket, and she seemed to have a good time. She even gave me a big smile a couple of times! People always look at babies, too, and they told me how pretty she is. It's nice. Having her there does make it a little bit more dangerous, though, because I have her up on the basket part of the cart, and I can't see awfully well in front of me. No casualties yet, though! She went to sleep for a little while, and, overall, it was our most successful shopping trip ever. I think that, previously, she has always gotten fussy at least by the end.

When I got home I carried Cara right into the house and went off to get the groceries in. She started to cry. She really doesn't seem to like her car seat lately, and she had been strapped in for quite a while. I put her in her bouncer while I put away the things that had to be put away immediately, and then I had to take her upstairs to play with and feed her. It's a mildly fussy day. I tried some tummy time, and she just got hysterical (not to the full extent of her powers, but somewhat hysterical, crying very hard for full minutes in my arms). She has played happily with me for a few minutes in her crib and on her changing table.

As I have said, Cara cries in her sleep. At one point this afternoon, I was pretty sure she was awake, so I picked her up. It turned out that she was asleep, and she snuggled right up to me and wound up sleeping on my chest in the glider for over an hour. It was really nice. I read my book and I took a little nap, too. At one point, I heard Shelby crying from downstairs. She came up with her jingle ball in her mouth and dropped it on the floor. She didn't feel like coming up onto the glider, however, and I wasn't getting up to play, so she left. She cried some more. When I eventually got up, after Cara got a little squirmy and I put her down, I found yet another cat toy in the hall. She brings them up, but when I try to play with them with her, she really doesn't react. There's some interesting cat psychology going on here, and I don't quite understand it.

Shelby and I are doing the laundry; she's as helpful as Cara is with the groceries. Shelby also helped put away the groceries; although those bags are Not Toys for Children or Pets, they are pretty exciting and fun. Buster sleeps all day and doesn't help with the chores.

I found out why there wasn't any other Hap Palmer at the library: somebody else has it! I checked the online catalogue, and there are several hap Palmer CDs that are checked out. I wonder who it is. I wonder when they'll be back. Steve is going to the library tonight, and I think that there may be one or two Hap Palmers that are there. Maybe I'll ask him to check.

9:30

There was no more Hap Palmer, but Steve got us a CD of Elvis songs for children. It turned out to be one of those albums that's "for children" because it's children singing. I think we both found it cloying and somewhat disturbing.

Cara got up and played with us for a little while, and now she's having some quiet time in her crib with her popper and her classical CD. Soon she'll have a bottle (a bottle battle, no doubt). We're reading about babies' temperaments in the book Steve's folks gave him for Father's Day. There are a lot of factors that make up a baby's temperament. There's a little quiz we might do, but I think that really Cara falls into the middle of most categories. They have to do with whether a baby is easily distracted, very active, adaptable, etc. It's pretty interesting to try to gauge where she falls.

6/29/05

Today was a busy day for me and for Cara. We got up at 5:15 (Cara went to bed last night at 10:45, by the way) and Cara ate, and then she took a nap for a while. She got up at eight and had a bath and then her real breakfast, since I consider the 5:15 to be her night feeding and the rest of the morning to still be her nighttime sleep, and then we went to see my gastroenterologist. That's always fun. I now have a very elaborate schedule to follow in order to taper off the prednisone. I ought to be done with it in about two months. Cara got to come out and dance for a while in the office, and everybody said hello to her, but I think she's not crazy about strangers. She wasn't really happy about being there. I weighed myself, by the way, with the baby in my arms, and came up 13 pounds heavier!

After the doctor we headed south to my parents' house. Cara played with her grandparents and then we all went out to lunch. Cara watched us all for a while in the restaurant, but then she got fussy. Before I picked her up, I decided to see whether she was understimulated. I shook her hippo at her, and she got very happy. She was, her grandfather pointed out, bored to tears. I got to shake that hippo at her for quite a while while we waited for our food. I shook him up and down at her, tickling her face with his tail (always a favorite); I shook him in circles. I shook and shook him. When I stopped, she cried. Eventually food came, and Grandma Janet wound up dancing with Cara. It worked out great, except that Grandma didn't get to eat. Eventually Claire and my dad headed home to do chores, and my mom ate while I danced with Cara. Apparently, though, I am not as good a dancer as Grandma.

Claire, my mom, and I went shopping while Cara stayed with her Grandpa. He reports that she took a nap for about an hour, and when I got back they were having a bottle battle (I am so tickled by that pun, and I am so shocked that I hadn't hit upon it before, that I am certain to use it until it is absolutely worn out. Some of you may think it already is.). Cara took a little bit of formula from me, and then she was clearly tired. While I packed up all of our stuff for the car, Cara danced with her grandma until she fell asleep. Splayed on my mother's chest, Cara looked like a little monkey or a frog. A frog-monkey. A cute little frog-monkey.

We had a lot of stuff to bring home. Aunt Claire gave us a batch of stuffed animals, and her friend gave us a gift of a package of diapers, some waterproof pads, a new hoodie towel, and a really cute basket. We also got a big bag of hand-me-down clothes from someone at my mom's art class. It was not a lot of fun to carry everything, but it was certainly fun to go through it. Buster Keaton in particular found one of the toys, a large puppet, to be Very Exciting. I am proud of her for attacking something that is bigger than she is.

I have started writing down when I feed Cara, just so I can see how often she actually eats and whether we have any kind of schedule. It is my suspicion that we do not.

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