Photos overdue.....

So Jaynah mentioned a few posts ago that I had a good schedule LAST month, being September and had time to get the camera out.  Well she promised, and finally I'm delivering some of my favorite photos from the month.  Enjoy.

ICU almost over.

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I'm enjoying our little lady, but I know there is no way that is possible.

STTN

STTN: no, it's not the acronym for the latest reality show, but it is an acronym that most mothers of infants will recognize. It is letters you run across with tired eyes and unwashed hair as you GOOGLE: infant....sleep....night. Sleeping Through The Night. 

I first ran across it when Peyton was about 6 weeks old...and there were mothers who said their babies had been sleeping through the night since 2 weeks old! What?!!? Obviously something was wrong with my child. She came home from the hospital sleeping 4 hour stretches at a time which seemed great. Until that lasted FOREVER and four hours turned into three and then to an hour and a half. You just can't function as a normal member of society with that kind of sleep record. At her two month check-up, I mentioned it to the doctor who recommended a book for me to read. Read?!?! Honestly, did he know I had gotten up that morning at 4:00am just so I could have a shower for that day? I dismissed it as normal for her age and decided that she would surely start STTN soon. 

Everyone has a different milestone that they believe babies start sleeping better.....6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks....10 lbs, 12lbs, 15lbs......drinking 6ozs...7ozs...8ozs.....eating cereal, drinking cereal. Peyton passed all these milestones and yet, still not sleeping good at night. At her four month check up, I mentioned it to the doctor again and again, he recommended the book. Ok, at this point...whatever...I'll read it. 

WOW...it made so much sense! It described my child perfectly and laid out a game plan. Basically it suggested the "let them cry" method. Well, we had already tried that to no avail, but it had been awhile and the book suggested 4 months was a good time to let babies learn to soothe themselves. It made me feel better by explaining how important sleep was to babies and how important establishing good sleep habits now would be in the future. So, we decided to give it a go. She cried for about 10 minutes when she woke up the first time, about 8 minutes the second time, and about 10 minutes the third time. The next night? She woke up once and cried for 5 minutes. The next? She woke up once for about 3 minutes. Of course, it took me several nights of going in her room after she fell quiet to make sure she was alive, to realize that she was OK. This might actually work. 

For about two weeks now, I have been the mother to a different child: she goes to bed around 8 or 8:30 and sleeps pretty much 12 hours straight. She still wakes up every now and then and I hear her on the monitor, but there is hardly ever any more screaming...just small sounds as she gets herself back to sleep. She is a happier baby all the time and when she is fussy, it's usually because something's wrong...not just fussy all the time like before. I feel like a new woman and I have discovered an even deeper love for her now that I have re-entered the world of well-restedness. The book has "game-plans" for all ages so I intend to keep it around for teething, terrible twos, and every other milestone that might affect the sleep of this family! Crazy long post about a small subject, but a very important subject for new moms and babies! Here's a few updated pictures to reward your commitment to this blog :)

UPDATE: sorry, I forgot to include the name of the book! "Healthy Sleeping Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth

She loves to eat! Wonder where she gets that from?!?!?



She loves playing on her tummy and now that she has learned to turn back to front, I can hardly keep her on her back anymore



We started baby food and have conquered carrots and green beans so far...she loves carrots..still deciding about those green beans. And she sure is messy!



She loves doing baby push-ups and is getting so strong!



We went to Atlanta on Friday where "Aunt Les" and "Aunt Doris" helped find Peyton a very fashionable outfit for our upcoming Altmix shoot....hope you are as excited as I am! Until next time....

Videos

A couple of videos for your viewing pleasure...

Peyton LOVES talking to herself...so cute!



She also LOVES Daisy...as you can tell, Daisy is still deciding what she thinks about this little one :)

Mothers sleep lighter

Peyton and I made is home safely last night. Lots of blogging to catch up on, but I thought I would share a quick story with you.

I'm sure all mothers out there, especially the new ones, know that sleeping soundly through the night hardly happens anymore. At approximately 1:20am this morning, a loud beeping sounds throughout our house. I jump out of bed, yell "Andrew, FIRE" and proceed immediately to Peyton's room. I'm pretty sure I didn't breathe again until I got to her room and found her sleeping soundly in her crib. At that point I realized that the heat had come on for the first time and that yucky smell/smoke was in the air. Apparently the smoke detector had picked up on that. In the meantime, Andrew has stumbled out of bed and is walking around in a daze in his boxers. We make it back to bed and he promptly states..."man, I didn't know those baby monitors had built in fire alarms." WOW. I quickly explain that it was not the monitors...it was our SMOKE DETECTORS. Geez. He falls quickly back asleep while I get up several more times to check on Peyton and allow my heart to reach a regular pace. It's a good thing he doesn't have to wake from slumber to treat patients...oh wait..what happens on call night?!?! I hope somewhere between his call room and the patients room, his head clears and he remembers how to run a code! :) All joking aside, I decided this is the origin of "mommy brain." We mothers never even make it to this deep sleep that seems like a thing of the past! All's well that ends well...no fire and we now know the smoke detectors work which will make all the firemen in my family proud.

4 months old

Peyton turned 4 months a couple of weeks ago and boy has she grown up. She keeps me on my toes with new accomplishments each day. She is smiling so much and laughs when her daddy is being silly. She has successfully turned tummy to back and most recently back to tummy. It is so sweet to look at her face when she does it...she is so proud! She is trying so hard to be a big girl and doesn't like to lay around anymore. She sits up in her Bumbo to play with toys and she is learning to love her new Exersaucer that she can stand up in. We went in for her 4 month check-up and shots and she weighed in at a hefty 15lbs 5ozs which puts her in the 80%. She grew quite a few inches and is now 25" and in the 75%. She loves eating her rice cereal and I have to keep her from trying to feed herself and shoving the spoon down her throat in the process. She loves holding her bottle herself and we have transitioned to using the sippy cup when it is time for juice. She still hasn't been the best sleeper so we started a new routine after talking to the pediatrician and the past few nights have gone much better. Hopefully before long, we will have day and night sleep conquered. Bath time has become especially fun now that Peyton loves to kick her feet and splash mommy & daddy...she finds this HILARIOUS. Andrew took some great pictures over the past month which he promises a return to the blog to post....in the meantime, a few from mommy's mediocre skills.

Holding her bottle



Sitting tall in her Bumbo seat



Enjoying her new Exersaucer



During the flood of Atlanta, my friends Doris and Leslie escaped the torrential downpours of the ATL for the hot humidity of Augusta and their first glance of Peyton's nursery. Doris was bummed to not be performing surgery, but Peyton and I so enjoyed their visit!



Don't ask what Peyton was doing here...pretty sure it was something influenced by "Aunt Doris."



We love taking evening walks and last night was the first time Peyton needed a little jacket



Bath time is also known as play time



Today marks the end of Andrew's elective/vacation month and he headed out early this morning for his first day in the ICU. Overnight call every 4th night won't be fun, but hopefully it won't be as bad as August. Peyton and I are looking forward to hitting the road again to visit friends and family to keep us from going crazy in this house.

San Diego

Part of what made September so exciting for us was Andrew's week of vacation. We decided to cash in our miles and take a much-needed vacation. We narrowed it down to a few options and decided on San Diego because of the activities available and the fact that neither of us had been there. My mom happily agreed to keep Peyton and with Daisy boarded, we were off. We flew out on Saturday morning and stayed until late Wednesday night. We had such a great time...I'll let the pictures tell most of the story:


We landed, got our rental car, checked into the hotel, and headed straight to the beach for my first view of the Pacific.



We couldn't be in San Diego without visiting the zoo.



We saw lots of great animals and Andrew enjoyed reading/listening to EVERY single fact about each one :)







I was a good sport and also took a tour of the USS Midway with Andrew, the history buff. He had a great time and we learned some interesting stuff.



The ship had a great view of the bay area:



While walking around one day, we saw people on Segways being given a tour....we decided that would be an awesome way to see the city and ride Segways for the first time.



It was so much fun; we loved it! Of course, ever-cautious me had a slightly longer learning curve than the others, but once I got comfortable even I enjoyed it!



Andrew was brave enough to take pictures/video while riding the Segway, whereas I was just holding on tight!



We were a little disappointed with SeaWorld as a whole, but the Shamu show never disappoints...such beautiful creatures.



After enjoying breakfast and lunch (and lots of sweet tea!) at Matt's Chickfila in San Diego, we picked him up for a drive up the coast to visit new Californians Sean and Erin. We missed their going away party in Atlanta, so we had a little welcome party at Laguna Beach.





A new love of mine...the Pazookie!



The whole group:



Us enjoying the beach and the beautiful sunset







And finally, brunch at the Hash House before we left...recommended by Matt and Jessica....so good!



We had such a great time...thanks so much to Gran Jan for taking such good care of little Peyton while we were gone - we were counting down the days to get our hands on this little girl!

Daddy's Girl

Andrew is done with the medical wards for a few months!! yay! He is doing an elective this month and will be doing different rotations from 8-12 each day and attending lecture from 4-5. With a week of vacation thrown in, this month promises to be one of the best of intern year. We are super excited. October and November won't be near as nice, but hopefully they won't be as bad as the past two months.

Even though her daddy hasn't been around as much as he would have liked, Peyton is still a Daddy's girl at heart. Here are a few pictures from a rainy day when Andrew got home early.



How precious are they?



She loves to stand up these days: no more cradling her in our arms :(



Holding tight!



Yes, he does



Mommy does too!