Can’t get enough

I can’t get enough of these videos, and it seems silly to not share them!

We made it!

This move was a doozy to say the least. Not only were we moving to another state, once again, but we were doing it with our hands tied behind our backs … otherwise known as having an infant.

Thank goodness the Mayos were able to come up and lend more than a few hands. We simply could not have done it without them. So, thank you Mom, Dad and Charlie. Your blood, sweat and tears were very much appreciated.

We are officially out of the apartment now and Matt does the walk through with the broker tonight. Hopefully he’ll give us a good rating so we can get most, if not all, of our security deposit back which will go straight into the roof fund. Matt, my mom and Charlie spent hours upon hours fixing up that apartment, scrubbing the baseboards, spackling the nail holes, bleaching the patio, etc. to get it up to snuff. I guess it wasn’t such a good idea after all to get into an argument with the landlord right before we moved out, but he started it! 🙂

Now, onto the house. We’re here and we made it and our stuff made it and the dog made it! It still hits me in waves that we own a house and have so much space and can let Zoe out to walk on grass, not cement. I don’t think it really started to sink in until the first night when I walked Lolo upstairs to go to bed. It meant that we had enough space that a second level was required and I was walking her to her room and not the office/baby room/dog hideout/Matt’s dressing room.

We’re doing well and SLOWLY putting stuff away. When I say slowly, I mean it. This is not a typical “oh we just moved and it’s a mess” situation. I can only do so much when Lolo is awake and when she goes to bed at night, I’m not exactly up for vacuuming the whole house. I know it will happen eventually so I’ll be patient and just keep telling people that come over that “we just moved this week” even if we are 6 weeks post move.

Here are some pictures of Lolo in her new EXERSAUCER, the best invention known to 4.5 month olds. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Mayo!

We own a home.

Dude, we own a home.

When I have more time, I will go through the whole rundown of how everything went, including the emergency room visit for Zoe. Nothing is ever dull around these parts.

Here is a picture of us at the train station after we finished closing on the house on our way back to Brooklyn. And, no, I’m not wearing a parachute harness, that’s my new baby carrier called the Beco Butterfly. It’s much more comfortable than the Bjorn now that the bean isn’t so little anymore.

Holy Transitional Object

Oh dear. The green lovie that we named “Little G” (thanks Gma Korn!!!!!!!!!!) has apparently become INDISPENSABLE!

(forgive the excessive exclamation points. but this is serious!)

We’ve been putting her to bed with it, feeding her with it and only hoping she would get attached to it. Well, she’s attached.

Today Little G took a tumble to the gnarly floor at Starbucks and according to my rules, that’s gross. So, I tossed it in the wash right before naptime thinking, “Oh well, she’ll get through her nap without it. It’s no big thang. I’ll wash it now so it will be dry for nite nite time. She’ll be totally fine with a burp cloth as a replacement.”

Not so fast Mama. She cried for the entire hour of nap time. Yes, 60 full minutes of excruciating tears. She was MAD! But, The Sleep Easy Solution book says that babies need at least an hour of nap for the sleep to be meaningful and if they need to, they can cry for the hour until they are sleep trained. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, “Dude, I thought she was sleep trained. She’s been fine until today. She sleeps beautifully at night and during the day with little protest. She’s a sleep angel at this point. Is this a relapse?” There is such a thing and it has a technical name but I can’t remember it now and the book is wedged under the air mattress so it’s not worth digging for it … subsequently disturbing Zoe.

I was dreading the nite nite process and thinking I would have a long evening of crying ahead as she worked through this relapse. Well, I gave her the freshly cleaned Little G and she was reunited with her long lost love. She went to bed without a peep and is sleeping soundly as I type (knocking on wooden surface now.)

Dude, I need to start carrying Little G around in a plastic bubble.

Toofies

They are a comin’!

AC update

We had a second, more qualified repairman in here to look at our AC units and we definitely figured out the issue. And, guess what? He did it without calling Arizona.

The outlets that both ACs use aren’t providing enough power for the units to run. So, they overheat from working too hard and then shut off.

So … we’re not crazy and it’s not our fault! Hoo-ray!

You’re not going to belive this one.

This has been the craziest week of my entire life. It beats losing power for a week after a hurricane blew all the way inland to Richmond, VA, which caused my stressed out husband to study for the GMAT by candlelight. It beats my parents telling me I was about to be a big sister at the age of 14. It beats infertility treatments in my kitchen.

As soon as these events started unfolding, I started composing the inevitable blog post in my head.

Sunday afternoon was a scorcher here in Brooklyn. The temperature was supposed to be about 98 degrees but the heat index put us well above 100 degrees. We were staying inside and packing our stuff in preparation for the big move and noticed that our AC units were having trouble cooling the apartment. In fact, the thermostat was reading 86.

Then, the power started flickering and cutting out completely for periods at a time. Soon after, NYC fire engines rolled down our street and set up camp a block away. We knew something was up, and it wasn’t good. I suddenly had a flashback to last summer when large sections of Queens lost power for over two weeks during the peak of summer. Then, the police started roping off all of the businesses on our block and closing our street down to traffic. In a panic, we started calling hotels that were relatively close by to ask if they took pets. There aren’t many hotels in Brooklyn anyway, and there are even less who allow dogs. We found one with availability in a transitioning part of Brooklyn that is fairly industrial. I was a little scared but knew we didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t bare the rising heat, so I knew my dog and baby couldn’t bare it either. It wasn’t the time to be a “hotel snob.” We hired a car and quickly gathered enough stuff to get us through two days in a hotel.

In the meantime, I had in the back of my mind that we were approaching night two of sleep training. I had no idea how to handle it. I knew it would be foolish to go back to old habits (rocking her to sleep in my arms with the NUK) when we had made so much progress. It would surely confuse the hell out of Lolo, but would she really be able to continue on in a strange new environment? I had to try.

I just gave it a go and tried our new routine. Since I had left the “nite nite” books at home, I did what I could to remember the lines in the correct order and winged it. I placed her down in the Pack N’Play totally awake as prescribed by the book, and she went right to bed with her lovie. No kidding. The girl didn’t cry one bit. Now my only problem was, what the heck do I do wide awake in a dark hotel room at 7 pm? I couldn’t turn on the TV or the lights.

While I was treading water in the nite nite routine, Matt walked back to the apt. to check on the power and our ACs. (The subway wasn’t running due to whatever crisis the fire department was dealing with.) Nothing was working and the cops were everywhere trying to prevent looting since many people were abandoning their apartments.

On the way back to the hotel, he grabbed some sushi takeout and got stuck in a huge rainstorm. It seemed that every victory included a side of extra drama.

Matt arrived heroically with sushi and Vitamin Water. But, due to our unique situation, we had to improvise by eating in the bathroom. Yes, Matt sat on the toilet and had his spicy tuna, and I stood in front of the sink and had my spider roll. Fun times. After sushi, we decided to just give into exhaustion and went to bed. It was clear that Matt couldn’t go to work the next day so we could get the apt. back into a cool condition.

Monday came and we finally got word about what happened on our block. There was a manhole explosion that caused a fire underground that subsequently fried some electrical wires and halted the subway. Apparently, there were a ton of people trapped on a train when the electrical system when down.

So, our goal for Monday was to keep the baby cool and to get our ACs back up to speed. Matt walked back to the apt. and called the GE repair line. Even though the power wasn’t on yet, we had a feeling that there was something else going on with the machines. By mid-day we had power and sure enough, the ACs were still struggling. The good news was that we got an appointment to have a repairman come out, the bad news was that it wasn’t until Wednesday.

So, plan B turned into us buying window AC units to hold us through. While it was super cool in the hotel, it was making me a little bonkers and claustrophobic. Every time Lolo napped, I had to lay there in the dark silently. Now, I’m not complaining about my child willingly napping without a fuss, but I couldn’t stare at the ceiling for another day not being able to make a peep.

By 7 pm Tuesday, Matt had held several work conference calls, rented a car, bought two ACs, installed them in our place and picked the family up from the hotel. What a guy!!!

(Sidenote: Matt has had a mess of stress to deal with at work. During all of this madness, Matt’s company has been going through a whirlwind of change and fired two of its top people.)

Tuesday night, we were back in our own home and putting the baby down for night 3 of sleep training. This was the worst night yet and made me think that karma was coming back to get me. Try to sleep train and infant and this is what you get … She cried for an almost unbearable hour. I thought I was going to give in, but I didn’t and she slept through the night. Hooray!

Wednesday came and our landlord happened to be walking around the neighborhood even though he lives an hour outside of the city. He saw that we had a window unit installed and quickly drafted a nasty-gram on his blackberry to Matt stating that his building insurance doesn’t cover the risk of window units and that we need to remove it immediately.

Oy … you know, with each problem we solved, it seemed that a new one cropped up. So, Matt replied that it was an emergency and that the units were there to temporarily get us through … He seemed satisfied which is good because there was no way we were removing them!

Then the GE repairman came over … He qualified as a repairman in as much as he was holding a wireless drill when he walked in. Other than that, he had no skills. He took off the AC cover with the aforementioned drill and promptly called a guy in ARIZONA to diagnose the problem OVER THE PHONE! Yes, there is a repairman 2,400 miles away trouble-shooting my machine in Brooklyn. Brilliant. Needless to say, the diagnosis that they came up with is not covered under the extended warranty we purchased. Of course it’s not. The guy on the phone, named “Tag,” claimed that the compressor needs to be cleaned. GE can do it but it will cost $380 for both machines and the guy that does it only comes to Brooklyn once a week and he’s already been to Brooklyn for the week. And … we are moving next week. Again, brilliant. So, I called GE again and requested a different repair person to come over, one that actually knows what he or she is doing without phoning someone else in the Southwest.

The next appointment is scheduled for Monday and I don’t have a feeling it’s going to go any better! But, I have to try.

The bright side is that we are cool now … and the baby has slept through the night 4 nights in a row (with dreamfeeds) … (Knocking on wood of course.) Somehow we are still trucking! We may be sleeping in the living room because that’s where the second AC is, but we’re making it through.

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

As soon as I can, I will post pictures of our hotel setup.

Pretty good results

Before reading this post, make sure you have read the post titled “Thirteen Fourteen” or this one won’t make sense.

I gave her a “dream feed” bottle at 12:30 am by gently rousing her before she could wake up hungry. The idea is that they never get food by crying. They eat when you wake them up from sleep. But, once she gets to 15lbs. and 5 months, we can wean the nighttime feeds.

She woke on her own four times between 3 am and 6 am with the last time being the official wake up where I congratulated her heartily for making it through the night like a brave little girl. The three waking times that I had to work through with “verbal check-ins” went pretty well. Although, I will say it is much harder to just lay in bed and listen to her cry without any distractions of food, drink, magazines, TV, etc. So, I got out of bed and surfed the Internet to keep my mind off the wee one. She fell back asleep each time in under 30 minutes which is fantastic because the authors say the average time to fall asleep for a baby not accustomed to self soothing is an hour.

I am glad we’re doing this now and not three or six months from now. Everyone says it gets harder and harder when they can stand and cry out for you and worst of all, call your name …
I don’t think I could withstand her calling out for Mama in tears, asking for help.

Phew. So, night one is done and now we will move on to night two. The books promises that you can see results in little as five days.

Thirteen Fourteen

Lolo had her four month checkup at the pediatrician, and she weighed in at 13lbs. 14 oz. and grew to 24 inches. So she put on just about 2lbs. which is a super increase for her and he thinks she is right on target for her growth pattern. I won’t tell Lolo that her friend Neko, who is a month younger, is already 14 lbs. One day, being petite will be a compliment for her.

Of course, the majority of the appointment doesn’t really involve the practice of medicine. It’s more about the list of questions that any given new mom will bring in to ask the doctor. My main concern at this visit was her new sleep disruptions which I have attributed to her teething and the fact that she is no longer swaddled like a baby burrito. I figured she would have worked it out by now though.

The doctor was quick to dismiss the drool and intermittent tooth pain as a reason for her getting up every hour from midnight until 7 am for no other reason than needing the Nuk replaced in her mouth. He said,”Look, she’s just turned four months and this is when the little ones start becoming keenly aware of their surroundings. She knows that the last time she was awake that she was in your arms, rocking, holding a lovie and sucking on the blessed Nuk. And, when she wakes up and she’s alone without any of the comfort you provide, it freaks her out.” He said that we need to start to put her asleep completely awake and allow her to learn how to put herself to sleep minus the Nuk.

(Audible Gasp!)

Say it isn’t so Dr. Horwitz. Is that possible?

I have found it very interesting that once again, just about the time I am exhausted with something (like wearing the Bjorn all day and all night or getting up several times in one night only to place a piece of silicone in my daughter’s mouth) is just about the time that she is ready for a change, too. I have gotten up at least five times a night for the past two weeks with a few exceptions here and there.

I just kept hoping that my good sleeper would magically return once the teeth resolved themselves. But, he reminded me that babies teethe off and on for the first two years of life. As long as the tooth is not actively pushing through the gum, she’s not really teething in his estimation.

So, he urged me to try the cry it out method of sleep training since she is old enough to handle it and doesn’t need a midnight feed. He said to put her down awake and let her cry for one minute and then pick her up for no more than 30 seconds … then let her cry for five minutes and pick her up for no more than 30 seconds and so on and so on until the space for crying is up t0 15 or 30 minutes at which point she should have fallen asleep.

Well, in all the discussions I have had in moms groups, in baby and me yoga classes, etc., people are adamant that the success of crying it out is due to the parent not picking the baby up … Oy!

I’ve also been struggling with the idea of whether to try the cry it out method or not. When she was born I was sure that I could never do it. But, now I am tempted because I can’t function without some sort of change and it can’t happen gradually over the next year.

So, I picked up a couple books that have been waiting on our shelf for about 3 months. We ordered several sleep books when Lolo was born not knowing that most sleep training systems require you to wait until a baby is four months old to implement any of their methods.

I read the No Cry Sleep Solution and honestly, it sounded like the process could take a month or six depending on the baby because it’s so long and drawn out. And, when they say it’s a no cry sleep solution, they really mean minimal crying.

So, I moved on to the next book which is The Sleep Easy Solution which is a middle of the road method where you don’t shut the door on the crying baby but also don’t pick them up. You only verbally soothe them from a distance where you can’t touch them. And, tonight is night one.

Mark it here. We’re looking for some change and she did so, so well! I placed her in bed wide awake at 6:43 PM and she fell asleep at 7:13 PM with two “verbal check ins”. And guess what? I didn’t cry either!

Thank goodness we already started giving her a lovie to clutch because she held on to that thing for dear life.

Once the sun rises, I will report more on how the night went and show you how we had to put aluminum foil over our windows as prescribed in the book! It’s quite a sight.

I can’t wait for her to make it until 7 am when I can congratulate her on her valiant efforts.

Priceless

Southern Baby In Action (With Baby Ribbon, Of Course)

Southern roots

We’re back in effect in Brooklyn after a lovely trip to Memphis where Lolo was the obvious center of attention … and for good reason.

She got to meet her Great Grandparents, her Great Aunt Miki and our dear friends Jon and Lindsey. It was also her first experience on an airplane … which went pretty well. The trip out was flawless but the flight back was a little bit louder. We were definitely “that” couple with the baby on the way home, but it was really quite minor in the grand scheme of things. She’s such a good baby … It just feels magnified when you’re trying to soothe your child with an audience of 70 people hoping it doesn’t get worse.

We all had a great time and Lolo was able to show off all of her tricks to the grandparents …
1. Baby stomach crunches
2. Singing
3. Standing (with help)
4. Grabbing toys

And, you can’t make it out of the South without a baby ribbon and eyelet diaper cover for the princess.