When It Rains, It Pours

When it rains, it pours. Or in Sophie's case, when she goes, she blows.
(Yes, this is another post about poo. Feel free to skip if if you desire)

This little girl can only produce massive explosions, and I'm not sure what to do about it. I've gone through 3 in the last 9 days. And I mean GOOD explosions, the kind where you're not sure whether or not her (or your) clothing will survive the wash. So far it's about 50/50.

The explosion last Monday occurred in the back seat of my car (one of her favorite places to explode). I came to a point, as she was sitting on my lap and yellow goo was dripping down MY leg and pooling on the car seat, where I was looking around the car thinking to myself, "What do I suddenly not care about anymore? What of the few personal posessions that I brought with me can I now use as a changing pad?" Luckily, my pants survived. Sadly, a bib, a burp rag that Stephanie made me, and a onesie did not.

The explosion yesterday happened at church. Luckily, she was in layers, and the top layer survived, but she had to go through half of church in a sleeveless dress with no socks on.

So what can I do with this child? Does she need a different brand of diaper? She currently wears Huggies. Is she just not Huggies-shaped? Does she need a different size? She probably weighs around 14½ pounds, right in the middle of the size 2 diaper category. Are we putting her diaper on wrong? Seriously, I'm out of ideas. And, I'm out of pink onesies.

Journal Jar #1: Goals

I am now the Secretary of the Young Women at my church. For an activity a couple weeks ago, we made "Journal Jars", which are jars filled with ideas to write in your journal if you can't think of anything. I decided I'd better set an example and use my jar. So every Sunday, you will get an installment of my Journal Jar - a question picked at random. Feel free to answer the Journal Jar question on your own blog if it intrigues you.

What Are My Goals For The Future?

I want to be a Stay-At-Home-Mom Extrordinaire. I hope to be able to maintain an organized home, a clean home, a peaceful home, a loving home; and happy, moral children.

I want to expand my hobbies, including sewing, drawing, writing, and other general crafts.

I hope to someday help provide for my family while remaining at home.

I want to be published.

I want to travel. Specifically, I want to go to Africa, the Dominican Republic (again), deeper into Mexico, Central America, Alaska, and anywhere tropical.

Feet!

Sophie discovered something last week that never existed before.

FEET!

Feet are wonderful things that you can play with, even if you don't have any toys around. They are toys attached to your body. She finds them pretty much any time she's on her back, and she thinks they're awesome. I do too.

Having Fun With Our Loud Talker

Make video montages at onetruemedia.com

Sophie Has Something She Would Like To Say

Sophie is quite talkative these days, and really likes to dominate the conversation.

Make an online slide show at onetruemedia.com

We Love Sunday School

Sleep Habits

Sophie has always been good at knowing the difference between night and day. By 2 weeks old, she was able to go right back to sleep after her middle-of-the-night feedings. Before Christmas, she had cut herself down to 2 feedings a night, including 8 hours between her dinner and her first night feeding.

Over Christmas, she caught a cold, and her feedings went back to her old 'every 3 hours' for a couple weeks, but she was right back on schedule about mid-January.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, she decided she doesn't like that schedule, and she's back again to the "every 3 hours' deal. When she wakes up at 11, we try to soothe her back to sleep without a feeding, but it doesn't work. She's up to eat. There is no outward reason for her change, but we have a couple of theories.

1. She's gassy.
I'm not a believer in gas drops, but she has been so gassy lately, and it seemed like it was waking her up, so we bought gas drops. I don't see a difference in her behavior though.

2. She doesn't have the resources to put herself back to sleep if she accidentally wakes up.
This theory is 2-fold. First, she's still being swaddled at night. We've tried for about 6 weeks now to take away the swaddle, but she just hasn't been ready for it. She has a bad habit of scratching her face and head when she's tired, and so we just ended up with a scratched up baby who couldn't fall asleep. Anyway, with her arms swaddled, she's not able to suck on her hand to calm herself if she wakes up. Jake and I have committed to a one-armed swaddle during naps this week, and if all goes well, that will turn in to one-armed night swaddles too.

(This is Sophie right now in her one-armed swaddle nap)

The second part is that her room is completely dark at night, so she doesn't have anything to look at if she wakes up. To solve this, we bought a crib light that's cry-activated. It works occasionally.


I miss the days of putting our baby to sleep, and knowing she'll stay that way until 2 or so. I was even working with her to limit her feedings to once a night. Now we're at 3 a night, with breakfast about 45 minutes to an hour earlier than it used to be. Is this a phase? Will she go back to how she used to be? Will she improve beyond that?

Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!

and Happy Birthday Arizona!

Dinner Companion

Thanks to her new Bumbo chair, the shortest member of our family can now join us at the dinner table.

Danny & Lindsi's Baby - It's A . . .

Congratulations to Danny and Lindsi! They had their ultrasound yesterday and surprised us all by finding out they're having a GIRL. Everyone in the family was wrong on their guesses.

Here she is, due to make her appearance at the beginning of July! I'm pretty excited because she and Sophie will be in the same grade - it's fun to have cousins your age - I know from experience. (see here and here)

Four Months

Happy 4 Months Sophie!

I've put together a video of Sophie's birth (nothing graphic). It's about 7 1/2 minutes long.

Make an online slide show at onetruemedia.com

Some of My Favorites

I've been thinking about doing a post like this for a while now, and then when I saw Tori's post, I became motivated to finally do my own.

So, here is my list of my favorite things (material posessions only, in no particular order)

1. NesquikA couple spoonfuls of this into a tall glass of milk, and I have a super-easy, low calorie way for me to get my daily calcium.

2. Johnson's Nursing PadsSorry, available at Wal-Mart, but not Target for some reason. These stay in place, don't look weird under a shirt, and provide extra comfort, especially for the early days of nursing.

3. My Hair DryerActually, this category applies to anything with a retractable cord. It's pure genius. I love it for my hair dryer because it eliminates under-the-sink cord tangles, but I love retractable cords for my vacuum for a different reason - it's just a pain to wind up a vacuum cord. (retractable cord honorable mention: my hand mixer)

4. Secret DeodorantThe inventors of Secret are awesome for finally realizing that we don't want people to smell us and think, "mmm, I can tell she's wearing 'powder fresh' today." These deodorants actually smell like girly lotion. I have the pear scent.

5. This Picture

I just like it.

6. My Ballerina FigurineI had this in my room all growing up, and now it's in Sophie's room. I'm not sure, but my great grandma may have made it for me. I loved collecting ceramic figurines as a little girl, and I'm so happy that Sophie has one of them now.

7. My Better Homes & Gardens Cook BookIt has all the recipies you need, and they're all simple and taste like you want them to. (Runner up: my 1990 39th Ward Cookbook)

8. Down East BasicsFinally, a company is catering to my extra-long torso and desire to wear semi-low-rise pants. I know, there are other companies that do the same thing now, but they were the first I found, and they just had a great sale (and I have a great husband who got me a gift card there for Christmas)

9. My Turtle CollectionI'm not a big collector in general, but I just love turtles for some reason.

10. My Project OrganizerMan, this makes our office a million times cleaner than it used to be. And it makes me feel more organized.

11. My CameraI take it EVERYWHERE. It makes blogging possible,

and it makes documenting her growth so much fun.

What are some of YOUR favorite things???

Giggles

Check out this cutie.

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com

Just Being a Good Dad

Abbie: (looking at Jake's forehead) Did you fall in basketball or something?
Jake: No
Abbie: Did you accidentally wipe dirt on your face?
Jake: (a little worried) No. Why? Is there a mark on my forehead?

Abbie: Yeah, it looks like a hickey.
Jake: Aww, man. It is a hickey.

(Jake earlier in the day)

Abbie: (begins uncontrollable laughter)
Jake: (very upbeat considering the circumstances, laughs too)