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Journal Key:

Green = Steve | George = navy | Janet = Purple | Evelyn = Black

12/08/05 (Thursday)

Last night, I put Cara down. Then she woke up, so I put her down again. Then again. Then Steve put her down. She went down around nine, but her last hurrah was not until about ten. She was heard from again at about quarter to four. I made a bottle and gave it to her. She did not fall asleep. She promptly decided that she wanted to, though, and so she turned on her side in my arms, grasped my arm and smushed her face into it, and fell asleep. At 4:20, I got up. I put her in her crib, still holding my arm. I went back and got a nice hour of sleep, and Cara slept until eight, as far as I know, happily snuggling the arm of my bathrobe.

Grandpa George was on duty until about noon today, when Cara's Grandma Janet (Steve's mom) came and gave him the afternoon off! When I got home from a long day at school at about 4:30, the two were happily playing in the living room. They had had a nice walk and played the piano as well as playing with all of Cara's toys. Despite Cara's emphatic rejection of cereal (uncharacteristic of her, of course), they seemed to have had a lovely afternoon.

Cara helped me make dinner and we had a good time in her jumper (I DO know the words to Oklahoma!, unlike certain other people), and her daddy got home. This evening we have been awfully lazy, eating popcorn and watching an hour or so of TV, but then Steve let Cara emphatically reject some peas. Then they had a really fun time chasing Shelby through the kitchen and living room. In a dramatic climax, Shelby wound up under a glass-topped table upon which Cara was permitted to sit. There has been a lot of squawking and general babbling. Now, Cara and Steve are off playing the piano. They both seem to be musically talented or at least inclined, and I hear a lot of crowing. It's bath night, and soon the bedtime cycle will begin again.

12/09/05 (Friday)

Last night, during some roughhousing we did on the bed, something rather momentous happened: Cara was lying down, and she sat up. She was kind of lying with her shoulders over my arm, but otherwise she had no help. She has never managed that before! Steve and I kind of looked at each other and asked whether it had really happened.

I gave Cara her bath last night. It didn't go particularly well, but it was okay. Then she got up at two in the morning. Anyway, I had today off because of snow, so Cara and I had a great day at home together.

One interesting thing I've been noticing has to do with Cara's tongue. She has been kind of turning it sideways as if to tongue her gum on her right. I'm wondering whether the gum is starting to irritate her because a tooth is on its way. I know I've predicted this lots of times, but some day I'm bound to be right!

Cara's sitting up spells the end of an era: I think it's time to stop using her bouncer. I remember reading that you could put babies in them until the babies could sit up and climb out, and she's getting close to that. I put her in it today, and she sat forward a few times; it made me a little nervous. It was the first thing we really had that she could play in, and it's going to be the first thing retired.

Cara was awfully good today; I got a lot done and she was well-behaved. In fact, she sat nicely in her saucer and listened to Burl Ives and I went out and shoveled some snow. When I got back she was happy to see me, but she was absolutely fine.

Tonight my wonderful parents are here to baby-sit while Steve and I go out to dinner and to a show . . . the tickets to which they gave us.

This is Janet, reporting on our evening with Cara. It looks like we have a Nets fan here. At about 8:45 I thought Cara was getting tired. George fixed her a bottle; I changed her and fed her, but she didn't nod off as I had anticipated. Instead she found her second wind. She pulled my glasses off my face again and drooled on them thoroughly, and started looking around for other toys. After a bit I brought her downstairs where George was watching the game, and placed her in her little seat in front of the TV. She has been sitting there, rocking, uttering contented raspberries and happy yips and shrills, for nearly an hour!

Prior to this we have had a lovely evening. Around 6-ish Cara had a bottle and the two of us enjoyed a refreshing nap in the glider. She watched Baby Einstein while we ate our dinner, and the rest of the time has been spent playing with various toys. She really seems eager to get mobile, and does the classic back-and-forth rocking when she can get onto hands and knees.

Oh, I've just now read Ev's entry above, saying that it's time to retire the bouncer, the very thing Cara is so happily using right now. A moment ago she even laughed.

12/10/05 (Saturday)

It seems like a long time since the last journal entry! Probably just because I haven't done one in a while. Ev and I went out and saw a great Shakespeare performance last night and came home late, late, late (around midnight almost) to a sleeping baby! She had gotten to sleep late, so she decided to sleep through the night and fairly late into the morning (8:30, I think). Lately, George has been commenting that Cara hasn't been finishing her bottles, and today I experienced first hand evidence of this. She drank only half of her morning bottle, and didn't finish her second bottle either. After this bottle, which did not result in any nap whatsoever, we took baby off to my brother's house for a sort of "open house" celebration with his and Sarah's families at their nice condo. Baby spent most of the time on the floor of the living room, sucking on her toys. She also got to meet lots of people who said she was cute (always a good experience for anyone), and was held by quite a few of them. Later in the evening she got a little tired, but did not want to drink her whole bottle and did not want to take a nap. Meanwhile, my brother's friend Darryl and his wife Libby arrived with their 20-month-old son, Abraham (Abe--or, I am told, "Ubbers"). It was very nice to meet and talk to another pair of young first-time parents like us, though they had a considerable experience-lead on us, since their son (to my utter amazement when I saw it happen) can walk totally without assistance or hesitation, and eats people foods like cheese and cookies. He was a cutey, and though they were both a bit shy, the kids at least got a look at one another.

It has been suggested to us that Cara's recent bout of waking up in the night is a symptom of a major change in her life--a new stage in her development is about to begin, so Cara is anxious and occupied. This is a positive way of looking at it, one which I will have to try to remember when she starts crying at 3 in the morning. Actually, though, I am willing to live with her waking up in the middle of the night every once in a while, just so long as it isn't that hard to get her back to sleep. I can still remember the early days, when Ev and I traded time spending tortuous nights in the living room trying to rock Cara in her car seat (and I resorted to ridiculous methods like running in circles in the darkened dining room to try to get her to sleep!). With that in mind, it's quite easy to live with a few late night or early morning wake-up calls.

Anyway, after a very nice time with friends and family and a very nice baby-fest, we plopped baby back in the car and took her home (having decided not to foist her off on my parents so that we could finish off our evening seeing a movie--Cara wouldn't have liked that!), where we spent some nice time playing with her toys in her room. Actually, I laid flat out on the floor next to the baby and let her fiddle around in her toy basket. It's so great that we can do this: that is, let baby amuse herself. She also spent some time trying to climb over me (climbing over and onto things is one of her hobbies--though since she can't crawl, she hasn't managed to climb very far yet, which is good, because she seems to get the climbing urge when she is right on the edge of a high piece of furniture). Eventually Ev and I decided to veg out downstairs by turning on the TV and putting baby on the living room rug with some toys. This worked very well for us all--baby is getting much better at letting us watch TV, and at watching it herself (as Evelyn remarked, this is a dubious talent for her to acquire, but one that in the short run is making us happy).

Around 8:30 we decided it was time for baby to go to bed, but first she got a two-man bath: I held the baby upright while Evie applied the soap. It worked pretty well! Ominously now, Cara and Evelyn have been up in the nursery for almost an hour with no noise coming out--either Cara is not interested in sleeping (once again choosing to not pay much attention to her bottle), or both of them have fallen asleep! When it gets to be 10 pm, I may have to go in there and find out.

12/11/05 (Sunday)

The other day, Cara and I played the piano. I had never really spent much time with her doing that, so I was pleasantly surprised. Steve has remarked that she is able to get the keyboard to do all sorts of things that he didn't know it could do, and I believe it. She just kind of whacks a bunch of buttons, and things happen. She does really seem to love the volume knob, possibly just because it's the only knob to turn. She made the keyboard play different beats and rhythms and turned it into different instruments, and she banged away at the keys with her hands, laughing and crowing with joy. Her feet were almost on the keyboard also, but she did not quite get them into the act, and, unlike certain other people, I decided to let her have a natural experience and play on her own so I did not grab them and play the piano with her feet.

The whole thing made me wonder whether this will grow into an actual musical ability or affinity; I wonder when she should start taking lessons (don't worry, we have a teacher all lined up). Then it made me think of this kid, George, in my elementary school. George was very nerdy; if I, who was very nerdy myself, could tell, then you were pretty nerdy. George could play the violin, and every adult around made a huge deal out of it. I certainly wouldn't want Cara to wind up like that. Then I decided that it's okay, because you just are however nerdy or not nerdy you are, whether or not you can do anything special. After all, I certainly couldn't play an instrument.

Cara was good all day while Steve's folks came up and we (well, the men) painted the bathroom. Janet and I took care of other chores. Grandma Janet put Cara down for her nap by giving her a bottle in her crib, and later we sorted out Cara's clothes, tearfully packing away some really cute outfits that fit neither the season nor the baby.

Cara is definitely getting herself ready to crawl. She can just about get up on all fours, and she rocks back and forth like one of those toy cars that you have to pull backwards before it goes shooting away. It's coming soon. We need gates!

We need to put a lot of stuff higher up!

!

No news on the tooth front yet, but she spent quite a while this evening concerning/worrying/bemusing Steve (I'm not sure which verb quite works, but he seemed bothered) by making a noise with her mouth that seemed to involve sucking in her lower lip and then kind of popping it out or something. It was a little odd.

She went to sleep pretty nicely; we'll see whether it sticks. I know she was up around two, and I am pretty sure I gave her a bottle and put her back down. I think it was hard to do. I vaguely remember giving her my robe again. I seem to have blocked it all out.

12/12/05 (Monday)

I've been away from Cara for most of three and a half days (with only a bit of Janet-led baby-sitting last Friday) and I can see some more of Cara's maturation.

This morning, after her bottle, she wanted to play with her box 'o toys. I could hear her upstairs babbling to herself. She seems to have good control of herself and she doesn't show much sign of toppling over as she might have last week. In short, she is a bit more sure of herself and more willing to play all by herself.

She drools copiously. She doesn't eat as much -- I'm assuming a consolidation period in her rapid growth. I managed three spoonsful of carrots in the morning, only two in the afternoon. She slept for three hours in mid day.

Cara babbles very convincingly--she's trying to tell you something! So, in short--the first tooth will be breaking through the gums any day now; her first bit of crawling will happen soon; her first word will spout from her lips and we will all be amazed!

Personally, I just want to relate my favorite part of the day. It went on for about three or four minutes. Cara was lying kind of on her side on the floor, saying, "bwaaa-aaaa-aaaa, bwaa-bwaaaaa-aa" while waving the lid to her shape sorter gracefully through the air and beating me about the face with it. Everyone can enjoy that.

Also, we think Cara has a little cold. Her nose runs when she sneezes, which she is doing frequently. Fortunately, she likes sneezing.

12/13/05 (Tuesday)

Here's the night:

9:40 (or so) Steve puts Cara down.

10:20 She is up. She is crying. We give her Tylenol and I snuggle her in the glider and doze.

11:40 I put her down and go to bed.

12:20 She is up. Steve makes a bottle, which I wind up not needing. I give her Tylenol and snuggle her in the glider and doze.

2:20 I put her down. I go to the bathroom so I won't have to get up later.

4:00 I get up to go to the bathroom. I go back to bed. I make plans for school. I consider getting up and doing the groceries. I decide to get what sleep I can.

5:18 I wake up.

5:30 I get up for real when my alarm goes off.

6:00 I go to get that full bottle out of Cara's room. It is empty. Clearly I have missed a trick somewhere. It's hard to see where, since I haven't slept for two consecutive hours.

6:10 I finish my journal and run out of the house before anyone can detain me on any excuse.

My advice for the day: Tylenol, Tylenol, Tylenol. Also, I hope Steve keeps his cell phone on in case I change my mind about getting takeout tonight. If I still have a mind.

What poor Evie missed--and I'm not sure how, since it was rather noisy--was Cara waking up again some time after 3. I went into her room and tried to give her her bottle, which she didn't want because it was cold, so I plopped her back in her crib, heated the bottle, went back up, and she took it and went to sleep. She has developed the habit of trying to sleep on her side with her face almost smooshed against my stomach (probably this is Evelyn's bathrobe's fault), but she finds it difficult to get comfortable in this position and so fidgets for a while before really getting to sleep. But eventually I felt she was asleep enough and put her down. It was around 4 in the morning, and as I was settling to bed Evelyn got up to go to the bathroom, as she says. So that was her "missing time."

When I arrived at 7:20, Cara was already awake. She definitely has a cold--my job this morning is to keep her nose dry--when she sneezes, there's a hail of snot everywhere. I put a second sleeper on her as it's very cold (18 degrees outdoors) and her hands were cool to the touch. She's very crabby, the opposite of yesterday's niceness, and very tired. I put her in for her nap a half an hour early (at 9:30) but she's up at about 10:30 when Jim and Janet (Steve's parents) arrive. Their job this morning is to give the upstairs bathroom another coat of paint. They do take the time to admire Cara who is pleased at the presence of other adults, as am I.

Cara has taken two doses of aspirin today and after noon she begins to look better; the ooze isn't so liquid. And then she's quite dry. That's good progress and then, after Jim and Janet leave, Cara yawns at me again and at 2:15 I toss her back into her crib where she naps to this moment (3:33 P.M.)

Baby is much better this evening. Her sneezes are far less frequent and also less eventful. We DID get takeout tonight, and we watched more TV than is our wont, but we also got a few things done. Cara seems a little cranky, but I figure maybe she's tired. Steve is putting her down right now; it's 9:00. I am putting myself down.

12/14/05 (Wednesday)

Last night I had a long night up with baby. She was still congested and did not want her bottle at all (or at least, she didn't like the taste when she tried it). I poppered her and she sort of went down. It wasn't long before she was up again however, and I was back. Again she did not want the bottle, again it was the popper. I had a lot of trouble putting her down, because she very quickly realized I was not there and started making noise. She coughed with a nasty barking kind of sound in the back. So I stayed with her late into the night, and was finally able to put her down. At 3 am or so she got back up again, but Evie took over then: she remembers little of what happened, so hopefully it wasn't too bad.

I got up in the morning disoriented and with a bad taste in my mouth. I was sick! This is odd, because it almost seems as if I caught a cold from the baby. I would have thought this was basically impossible--I mean, what the heck are my 27-year-old antibodies good for if they can't fight off a cold from an eight-month-old baby? Perhaps I was carrying around a latent cold for a while which baby picked up, made active, and passed back to me. Clearly I am not a scientist. Unfortunately, Evie says she has a sore throat as well, so we may both be coming down with something. Hopefully we won't both be out of commission at the same time. I was pretty bad today with a runny nose, but maybe I will fight back tomorrow.

Anyway, baby seems much better, and she was a model citizen this evening. Evie had to go out and do some badly needed grocery shopping, so I stayed home with baby and we watched the Nets play the first half of a home game while she sucked on her toys. Then we played some keyboard, and then Mommy came home. Then Cara was very, very good and quiet in her high chair while Mommy put away the groceries and Daddy shuffled around blowing his nose and groaning. Then we got her ready for bed and she seems to have sucked down a bottle. I have hopes that she will sleep better tonight, but we'll see. I have just taken a dose of Nyquil, so I think the late night babying will fall entirely to Evie.

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