The best sound of all

We have been happy watching Elisa do so many new things. This week we added another--laughter. Here she is smiling and laughing at her daddy.

We have thumb!

Thanksgiving indeed! Here's Elisa enjoying her favorite dessert--thumb pie. Mmmmmm.

Tummy time

Here's our little girl in action. A few minutes later, she had her whole fist in her mouth!

Giving thanks

As I've often remarked, Elisa has a knack for timing things just so. It's like she knows when she needs to come through in a pinch. And so just in time for Thanksgiving this week, she has made our lives all that much more thankful: she's actually slept through the night! Yes, last week on our journey to North Carolina, we had our first 9 hour night. Nine hours of solid sleep! It was pretty unbelievable. Of course, I woke up almost hourly just out of habit, but rolling over and dozing some more was so nice.

While we're not sure exactly what prompted it, the best guess is a combination of her new formula (Nutramigen) and reflux meds (first Zantac and now Prevacid) and possibly the magic 3 month mark. Because the first night coincided with a long day of air travel, during which Elisa was curiously wide awake, I was convinced it was a fluke. But after two more nights of 8 hours each, it seemed like we had a different baby all together. Backtracking slightly to the 4 and 5 hour stretches with a feeding in the middle of the night wasn't the best feeling, but it's still such an improvement over a few weeks ago that I'll take it.

What we still don't know is why one medicine helps one aspect of her reflux (the spitting up and croaking noise) and the other seems to cure her stuffy snorting and sleeping problems. It doesn't seem like we should have to choose between these symptoms. Luckily we are getting her into a pediatric GI doc next week, so maybe part of this mystery will be solved. In the meantime, we're just happy to have all of us together in one place for our first Thanksgiving as a family. Bringing Elisa into this world and seeing her develop these first few months has been such an eye-opening experience. Every day there is something new to be amazed by and it helps get you through the hard times and long, sleepless nights. I don't think there is much about these months I would repeat, but then it has given me a new perspective on surviving one day at a time...and looking forward to the next.

Winterizing

With the temperatures outside beginning to feel like November, we've been taking Elisa outside a little less. I'm dreading that first cold she gets this winter, but I guess that's another rite of passage...in the meantime, here she is with her fleeciest garb. So cute! P.S. Note that she has worked her thumbs OUT of her mittens. How typical, but we're hoping it trains her to suck on them and not her entire fist. She needs all the help she can get.

Wake-up call

Considering how much I post about my sleepless nights, I figured it was only fair to write about a good evening for a change. Yesterday Nacho was called for a three day trip, so we said goodbye to him mid-afternoon and prepared for a long night ahead. By about 6:30pm, Elisa had taken a good few ounces in and was getting drowsy so we laid her down around 7:45pm. Mom fixed a nice dinner and we enjoyed some peace and quiet for a change.

Of course, there had to be some trade-off and it was clear from the phone calls my niece Mia began making to us, that another granddaughter far away was having a very different kind of evening. My sister and her husband were off to the Marine Corps Ball last night, enjoying some time together after his recent return from Iraq. Apparently, Mia has been having some bad dreams of late and was really missing her grandma last night, so she called mom wanting to hear her voice before bedtime. After a series of calls, though, it was clear that perhaps grandma's voice alone wasn't doing the trick. There is just no substitute for a good hug and a snuggle when you are missing someone like that.

So a few hours pass and mom has checked back with my nephew Jordan to see how Mia was doing. Luckily, she had fallen asleep so we felt the evening drama had probably ended. Oh, no. Meanwhile, our little Elisa was waking up around midnight and after wolfing down another bottle went right back to sleep. It was a delightful end to the day. I climbed into bed around 1am and figured I wouldn't be there long. But waking around 2am, I realized this might be a good sign and went back to sleep, happy to hear mom snoring away while Elisa remained contently asleep.

Around 3:40am though, I heard my phone ringing in the living room. I thought it might be a wrong number, so I waited until I heard the alarm for a new voicemail before climbing out of bed and tiptoeing past my sleeping angel. When I got to my phone, I saw that I had missed a call from Jordan's cell phone and listened to the message from a distraught little girl--yes, Mia had made the call to talk to grandma one more time. I immediately dialed her back, half awake myself, thinking this was a good thing to do. Of course, hearing my voice, Mia sounded like she wasn't really too distressed and quickly whispered a goodbye after I told her we were all sleeping and she should too. Her hushed tone told me that she was probably huddled down in her bed trying not to let anyone at home hear her talk--a definite no-no, but sweet nonetheless. When I returned to bed, mom turned over and I told her that Elisa was still sleeping, but Mia had just called. We both laughed about this turn of events. I guess you never outgrow needing your grandma in times like these.

The power of one

I like to think that as this first holiday season with a baby approaches, Nacho and I will be smart enough to forego the lure of expensive toys and just focus on what Elisa really wants--her fist. Yes, she still hasn't mastered the art of thumbsucking and now she seems hellbent on watching her fist and talking to it. Who knows why, but it has become a routine after feeding that you lay her down and she goes ape over that left fist. Here she is in rare form.

To sleep, perchance to dream

Just as in all fairy tales, we have our own fair maiden (we'll call her "Sleeping Beauty") and she does make for an interesting story. Most importantly, perhaps, her story is never the same two days in a row.
In fact, what we have found over the last week is that our little girl likes to sleep several hours in a row when it is most convenient to her. Usually this doesn't coincide to any time of day we can predict. It could be after a big feed or not, following a bit of fussiness or relative calm, early morning or late in the day. But what we know for sure is that it hasn't happened overnight. While Nacho and mom and I are taking turns sleeping in shifts and mapping out our days to have all bases covered, Elisa weaves in and out of dreamland as she pleases. The only consistent pattern being her rabid hunger when she does wake, gnawing on her hands and making them good and slobbery before erupting in a fit of squeals. As mom noted today, some babies wake up cooing and staring at the ceiling, but not Elisa. When she leaves her dream world, it's loud and cranky and you better have something to eat for her NOW.

Also, as these pictures suggest, we have recently started to put Elisa down on her tummy. Yes, despite my initial hesitations and all the SIDS campaigns against it, tummy sleep does seem to be more comforting to her. Mostly, it allows her to stick her hands in or around her mouth without completely smacking herself and flailing about. It also seems that she can burp, fart and wiggle without opening her eyes and waking up further. For now, we are keeping a protective eye on her during this sleep with someone always on-deck. So far, she is taking to it well and has even been showing us her upper body strength when she wakes and does her push ups to get our attention.

Overall, I keep reminding myself that it's still early for her to be sleeping long stretches at night. Culturally, I think we have the belief that if a woman can return to work between 6 to 8 or even 12 weeks, then babies ought to cooperate and give their parents more overnight sleep. But in reality, no one who has a baby that I've talked to seems to think that 3 months is a milestone for sleep. It just happens when the baby is ready. And we've already decided that Elisa may be a baby who requires less sleep than others. She definitely isn't going the 9-10 hours a night that some mothers on my internet baby board are reporting. But then, I'm pretty sure those babies must be too bored to stay awake. Our girl is all smiles and talk, wanting to ring every bit out of her awake time. And if that's the way the story goes, so be it.

Fall colors in Central Park

Considering Elisa's night owl schedule, we haven't been venturing out too much in the daylight hours. But today we took her to see the fall foliage in Central Park--one of my favorite scenes of the whole year. The skies were a little bit overcast which made the leaves seem even more colorful. She snoozed through most of the park, but I'm pretty sure she can see through her eyelids.

Hello Bright Eyes!

Last week I finally admitted defeat and called in the reinforcements to help us straighten Elisa's sleep schedule out. Yes, Grandma flew back to New York and even gave up her chance to vote tomorrow (which pains me to say) to see for herself what all this drama was about. So far, it hasn't proven too effective in changing anything, but we're very happy to have the extra pair of hands. There's nothing like a grandmother to share the good AND the bad and smile at it all.

Of course, we're still getting the only real consolidated sleep at the very END of the night--Elisa goes down by 5 or 6 or 7am and then sleeps a good 4-5 hour chunk. Trying to get her to move that sleep slot to a more reasonable hour has been our primary goal these last few nights with little success. We've tried letting her nap less during the day, play more during her awake times, and use our new found noise machine and aquarium crib toy to lull her into a profound sleep. NO DEAL. Elisa has decided that she would still much rather coo and smile and squirm all night long and confuse us even more. It's not as if she's fussy or crying or gassy all night. In fact, most of her awake time from midnight til dawn is nothing more than that--awake and alert without any known problems. So we spend this time lulling her to sleep only to have her wake up crying with a burp or just not sound enough asleep to stay that way. It's as if every little creak of our wooden floors or a little groan of the couch cushions makes her spring back to life and has us all walking on eggshells through the night. Meanwhile, once daylight strikes, you could have full conversations with the TV blaring within earshot of this girl and she dozes straight through. It's so annoying. But never fear...we're going to IKEA today to buy her crib and I'm just sure that will do that trick. Ah, yes, I can feel the sleep...