Life in these parts.

Every morning I vow to write a post after the girls go to bed.  And every evening after the girls go to bed, I sit down to watch crappy TV and do little else.  Every morning I also vow to go to bed early and every evening I stay up a little later than I should, because it's the only time I'm just allowed to sit.  It's so peaceful.

Life in these parts has been good.  Tiring, but good.  Greta has been sleeping very well at night.  Better than many older babies.  She generally goes to sleep sometime between 7 and 8 and will then sleep until about 5 am.  She'll then eat and sleep for about another hour or so.  Sometimes she wakes up at about 1, but that has become more and more rare.  And sometimes she wakes up about 1, lets out one short wail and goes back to sleep.  We haven't yet hit the four month sleep regression so I don't even begin to expect this to last.  I'll enjoy it while it does and cross my fingers.

Shockingly, nursing has been going really well.  A total rollercoaster, though.  Last weekend Greta was fussy all weekend.  I could tell she was teething, because she was a spigot of drool and chomping down on anything she could get her little jaws on, usually my finger.  So I thought perhaps the grumpiness was due to teething, but she also wanted to nurse non-stop and wasn't pooping.  So I thought she may not be getting enough, and the stress of it all really made me want to stop nursing.  Just go to formula and have a happy baby that I can enjoy again.

But then, throughout the week, nursing went great.  So well, in fact, that we went a couple days earlier this week without bottles.  We've done that in the past and then she'd be up all night nursing to catch up on calories.  This time she was still sleeping all night, plenty of dirty diapers and very happy.  However, after a few days, we had a date night.  As we were getting ready to go our beloved baby sitter tried to give her a bottle and she wouldn't take it.  Ugh.  She was freaking out, and it took me half an hour to calm her down.  The only way to calm her was to nurse her.  So I worried throughout the whole date night that she was a total mess.  Since then, I've been trying to give her a bottle a day, just so we don't get into a refusal for a bottle.  Some days she's fine with it and some days she's reluctant.  So she's getting a bottle of formula a day (so much for the virgin gut!) but I'm managing to keep some sanity.

Despite sleeping well at night, she is napping not as good.  She's been an excellent napper for a while now, and has gotten fairly consistent.  Short nap at about 9:30 or 10:00, longer nap at about 1:00 (sometimes up to 3 hours) and sometimes a short nap in the evening. That longer nap has become shorter, and if the evening nap is short that means she's only napping an hour or an hour-and-a-half throughout the day.  That's less sleep than MJ gets.  So I guess it's good she gets a little more at night.

Furthermore, whereas she used to put herself to sleep readily, she will now only be nursed to sleep.  And she wants nothing to do with the pacifier.  She's still swaddled in the rock 'n play for sleep.  I know I need to get her out, but she sleeps so good... I fear we're establishing some bad sleep habits, but I also believe not to make a big deal of things unless they become a problem.

Overall, Greta is just a happy, mellow baby.  She's not much for being alone.  I'm not sure if this is accurate, but I seem to remember MJ at this age being content to entertain herself for fairly long periods.  Greta freaks if you leave the room she's in or she thinks she's alone.  And she basically just wants to be toted around all the time, which I kind of love.  I can set her down for short periods if I need, but she'd much rather be held.  I love me a cuddly, squishy baby.

MJ is being very 3, but a bit less tantrum prone than she was a month ago.   I've decided I need more videos of her, because looking back at videos of her from just a few months ago shows how much she's changed, even though it doesn't seem like she has.  Everything is much more gradual now, fewer concrete milestones.  She continues to be an excellent big sister, loving and helpful all the time.  Sometimes a bit rowdy for a 3.5 month old, but that's to be expected.

It's late.  I'm too tired say much else.  Or even to edit this beast.  My hair is coming out in clumps that seem to never end (post-partum hair loss combined with fall hair loss.  ugh.)

Rambling...