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Baby Fashion

A few weeks ago, Nathan’s parents came by to drop off some of his things from when he was a baby/child. Toys for Annabel to play with one day, his favorite books for her to read, and some of his tiny clothes for us to see. It was funny to see how far baby clothes have come in the last 30 years!

Take this little outfit for example:

Nathan’s mom says this was the precursor to the “onesie.” You can open up the snaps like this:

for easy diaper access. You’ll also note (if you can see it) that there are two snaps on each side. This way, it can grow with baby! Snap the top one to make it smaller and the bottom one to add a little bit of length. Pretty clever, no?

So maybe baby clothes haven’t come so far after all where this outfit is concerned!

However, the footie pajamas have definitely improved. Now there are actually shapes where the feet fit right in, whereas when Nathan was a baby, you had this:

Sealed in pants, but no designated space for the feet.

One thing that hasn’t changed? Carters.

I guess they cornered the market a long time ago!

Speaking of baby fashion, am I the only one who thinks that babies in onesies with pants over the top look like little old men? I’d much prefer just regular shirts with pants, but then you have the problem of the shirt constantly riding up and creating quite a draft for baby’s back and belly. My solution? Onsie over the pants!

So much cuter if you ask me!

And if I had to guess, I’d say that Annabel agrees with me!

Wouldn’t you say?

This

kid

really

loves

her

daddy!

I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual….

Sunshine-y Day!

I’m so behind on my blog! There’s been plenty to write about and share, but not enough time. What with the sleep deprivation, I have no energy whatsoever to do much of anything in the evenings after Annabel goes to bed. I’m lucky to get her bottles ready for the next day, my lunch put together and a shower. Beyond that, I’m pretty worthless. Then the weekends feel like a mad dash to get everything done. Laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, errands, sleep catchup (when possible) and of course some quality time with my two favorite people. It feels like there’s little time to relax and just have fun on the weekends these days.

Today was a nice exception.

The weather has been beautiful for the past several weeks, and we had a chance to meet up for lunch with a couple of friends who were in town.

We went to a restaurant that is right on the lake, Hula Hut if you’re familiar. It was the perfect day for it!

It wasn’t really cold enough for it, but Annabel got to try out her Longhorn hat.

Annabel even learned to fly!

After lunch, we did a little shopping and then headed home. It was just the kind of Saturday that I needed after three weeks of being really stressed out by being back at work and adjusting to our new chaotic schedule.

The Difference

I told you in my Christmas Recap that I got an external flash for my camera. What I didn’t show you is the difference it makes. It’s amazing! Here is a picture of Annabel playing on the floor. I wanted to get right on the floor with her and shoot from that perspective. With the standard camera flash:

With the external flash:

Annabel doesn’t look too sure about it, but in time she will learn to really appreciate the awesomeness.

The pictures above were taken while she was playing on the floor in her room. Speaking of her room, I think she likes it! All of that hard work paid off. She especially loves staring at her fabric wall art while having her diaper changed. Or after.

How great is the lighting in that picture?! I know I’m being a huge photography/camera nerd, but I just really love my new flash! It’s so nice to finally be able to take indoor pictures that aren’t all blurry and dark and grainy.

The End.

That title is perhaps a little misleading as it implies that there is only one problem with sleep deprivation, when in fact, the list of problems is likely endless.

For the first three months of her life, Annabel slept in a bassinet next to our bed. I needed her there. I needed to be able to hear her, to know that at any point, I could sit up and look in on her. She made a lot of noises in those early weeks and months, and it kept me up. That wasn’t ideal, but it was still better (to me) than the thought of her not being beside me. As she got older, she started to sleep lighter and I noticed that anytime Nathan rolled over (very loudly I might point out!), she would stir. If either of us got up to use the restroom, she would stir. When Nathan snored (I’m certain I never did), she would stir. Now neither of us were getting good sleep.

So right around when she turned 3 months, we moved her bassinet into her bedroom and hooked up the baby monitor. I also insisted on some background noise because I’d heard wonders about babies and white noise while sleeping. It worked like a charm, and Annabel started consistently sleeping from about 8pm-5am. She’d wake up to eat, and then she was back asleep until 7 or 8, sometimes 8:30 or even 9am!

I had the audacity to complain about her 5am feeding, wondering how I would survive going back to work and essentially waking up at 5am since there would be no use in going back to bed after that. I needn’t have worried though. The night before I was scheduled to return to work, she didn’t wake up at 5am! Oh, no. She woke at 2:45. And then again at 4:50. And then again at 6am, meaning that we both had to get ready while she was awake. That wasn’t part of the plan. Apparently she missed that memo.

And so it’s gone. EVERY night since I’ve been back at work. The times vary, but she’s always up multiple times. Last night for example, she went to bed at 8:45pm, then woke at 12:45am, 3:45am, and then 6:30am for the day. And sometimes it takes an hour to put her to bed at night.

I have no idea what happened or how to fix it. I just know that I’m losing my mind and feel like I’m on the verge of a breakdown of some sort. I don’t think she’s hungry when she wakes all of those times, but inevitably, I end up feeding her because it’s the only thing that will calm her and get her back to sleep. And when it’s 1:00am and I’ve only been asleep for a few hours and I’m going on days of very little sleep, it’s exceedingly difficult to think rationally about the long term effects my feeding her might be having on her ability to sleep well. And even when I go in there with the notion that I’ll just get her back to sleep without feeding her, I always cave. Sleep always wins out over minutes and minutes of rocking, swaying, and bouncing her back to sleep while she cries.

I’ve even gotten into the bad habit of bringing her back to bed with me just to get a tiny bit more sleep after that 4 or 5am wake up. I know.

We’ve tried not going in there and hoping she’ll go back to sleep by herself, but all that seems to accomplish is waking her up further and making it even more difficult to eventually get her back to sleep. It’s all a vicious cycle and one I’m ready to see end. I am constantly reminding myself that with babies, everything is temporary. The bad stuff, but also the good.

So for now, I’m taking the bad with all of the good. And don’t get me wrong: there is SO much good! But sometimes it’s hard to concentrate on that, hell it’s hard to concentrate on anything with the lack of sleep!

In conclusion, who wants to keep my baby for a night? Just one? :)

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