Thumbing it

Elisa has a new friend and it's actually attached to her left hand--her thumb. She's been trying for a couple of weeks to make thumb and mouth meet without much success. It seems no matter how quickly she gets the thumb into her mouth, it just won't stay put. Here she is giving it the old college try.

Learning to sleep

I'll start by mentioning how wonderful it is to get 4 hours of sleep in a row these last few mornings. But of course that's only half the story--they all seem to happen somewhere between 3-4am til 7-8am! Not exactly the time of night I was hoping for our big stretch. Elisa has calmed down quite a bit since her 2 weeks of continual gas and fussiness in North Carolina, but now she seems to regard the wee small hours of the morning as her best time. She just WON'T fall asleep.

Take for example our evening last night. After her 11pm feeding, she slept from 12:20am until 2:45am. Then she ate and wanted to stay up until almost 5am. From 5am she slept through until 9:20am. I suppose this would be okay if didn't view 3-5am as prime hours for my own sleep. But somehow, knowing I might get to sleep in til 9am is completely undermined when you are rocking a wide awake baby at 4:30 in the morning. I guess this will all work its way out eventually, but waiting is beginning to wear me out. Of course, seeing her face smiling at me every morning and those playful times on her blanket (see above) make up for all the inconvenience. Or at least that's what I tell myself in the middle of the night.

Carolina on my mind

Now that we're back from our trip down South, it feels like a long ago dream. Seeing mom and dad again and having Elisa meet her aunts and cousins was a real treat and one that I'm lucky I had the time to do. Elisa was a real trouper on both plane rides (sleeping on the way down and barely fussing on the way back) and I hope that we'll keep up the pace. We have lots more trips in store for her, so we're going to need a baby that likes the movement and excitement of air travel. The only time she really got keyed up was during the taxi-ing on the flight home. As soon as the plane started down the runway, though, she was blinking her way to sleep and stayed down for the next hour. Hopefully she will continue to impress us with her go-along attitude.

During my two weeks in NC, I was constantly reminded how much it helps to have family around you at times like this. I feel very fortunate that I had such great help so I could squeeze the most out of my between-feedings blocks of sleep. Despite the fact that Elisa had a lot of issues with her tummy while we were there (gas, gas and more gas), mom did manage to get one 5 hour chunk of time for me (amazing!!) and most nights we had a good 3-4 hours between feedings. Decoding Elisa's new found facial cues and variety of cries (yes, she does have a bitchy one--can't wait to meet that temper!) was a fun game and I was happy to see her progressing every day with more smiles and cooing. By the time Nacho arrived this week, we were pretty sure we had a different baby to take home. So all in all, I was able to relax a little and enjoy sharing Elisa with the people I love the most.

Of course, nothing lasts forever, and as I'm finding out, Elisa is never one to get complacent with a routine. Our first night back home she was pretty calm and went down after each feeding with hardly a burp. It was like magic. She didn't give me more than two hours of sleep at one shot (3 hours between feedings total) but it felt somehow effortless. So on Thursday we ventured into the city in the Baby Bjorn and Nacho kept his dentist appointment (where Dr. Boyd pinched her cheeks and probably inspected her gums without me noticing) and I took Elisa to the office to hang out on Bosses Day where she was a big hit.

Last night was our first without Nacho around since he's got a two day trip this weekend. I was a little bit fearful all day long of how exactly things would go. It felt kind of like waiting for a hurricane to make landfall--it might tear your house down or it might miss you completely--you just don't know. I have to say it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but then again, I was just amazed I got any sleep at all. Miss Thing didn't want to go down for more than an hour at her bedtime feeding, so I picked her up and rocked her til the next one at midnight. Then she screamed and faunched on and off until about 2:30am (within 1/2 hour of her next feeding) but luckily she somehow fell asleep without that one and slept until 5:15am. By the time we woke again at 8:30am, I felt like I'd made it through the battle, and bruised and bloodied might just live to see the day. It's crazy how delusional sleep deprivation can make you! Now today we are hanging out and I'm trying to approach this second overnight alone with a bit more bravado...oh, yes, she will sleep tonight. So we might as well enjoy the day we have. I'm thinking of taking a shower even! And as for Elisa, she is fed and laying down as I write, so let's hope she stays that way for a bit longer until I can join her.

Elisa's love letter home

This week marks the first time Elisa has been away from Daddy since she was born. After 6 glorious weeks on leave, Nacho started back to work the same day (October 1st) that I flew to North Carolina, so we've been relaying all her changes and expressions to him over the phone. But no matter how well I describe her smiles or the vocalizations she is beginning to make, there is never a way to capture it all...so here's some video of her cooing just for him. Enjoy!

Flaky Stinky Monkey Girl

So, we're in North Carolina visiting the family and everyone is in love with our little Elisa. Not that we're actually calling her "Elisa" mind you. We've mostly taken to calling her anything but her name and in fact, my favorites are the words of the day whether it be flaky (for her budding cradle cap forehead) or stinky (for the inevitable diaper odor) or monkey girl (for when she curls her toes around your finger). We all agree that she's been making MANY more faces and even SMILES at all of us these past few days. I told Nacho he's going to be surprised by the looks he gets when he sees her again in a week. And the cooing...my god, the girl is singing and talking to all manner of objects (ceiling fans, the leather chair, her bassinet) so much more. It's great to see that change and to realize that one of these days there will be words there. Here are a few pictures to enjoy the changing faces and I'll be adding video later on.