Today is Phoebe's 1 month birthday. It has been a weird week here in Portland. Over the weekend, it was sunny and in the mid-70's. This morning, it snowed at our house and above on the hill (Nothing stuck, but it was still odd) Phoebe has had herself an interesting week as well. In the last week, she has found her hands, and she can get them into her mouth most of the time. She gets them into her eyes sometimes too. There are times when we're changing her diaper in our bathroom where we keep Ellen's Baby Beluga book. Sometimes it seems like she is trying to open it. She really looks like she's looking at the cover at least.
Her smile is coming along nicely too. She looks like she is smiling for real, but we know that she isn't. She studies faces a lot, and she's awake much more as well. (If this seems a little dis-jointed, you can blame it on the lack of sleep) We moved Phoebe into the next size of diapers as well. That's right. She's moved from newborns into 1's. Luckily, thanks to our diaper shower, we just so happen to have a bunch of 1's already. Hooray! And tonight we'll be trying out the bottle for a feeding. We'll have to see how that goes. It'll give me something to do in the middle of the night other than feel bad about being awake and not being able to help. With Phoebe not sleeping much this week, I've really been a bit on the edge. Jada even sent me to the couch one night so I could actually drive to work the next day.
Ellen is becoming a big girl in her own right. Over the weekend, disassembled the crib and moved it into Phoebe's room. Ellen seemed ok with it at the time. Then we headed off to the zoo to enjoy the incredible spring-like weather. The line was long at 9.30am when we got there. We got to see some things we hadn't gotten to see before. We watched a polar bear jump into the water, and I do mean jump. Then we saw the hippo's actually walk into their river. Ellen seemed to enjoy herself riding in the backpack. I was worried at first that she wouldn't want to get into the backpack, but she really seemed to like it. (Actually, she threw a fit when we wouldn't let her into the backpack at the house before we left!)
When we got home, Ellen was very tired. We got her some lunch, and then it was the moment of truth...the first nap in the big girl bed. Jada had bought a new little stuffed animal for Ellen's new bed in hopes of easing the transition. Luckily we bought a gate for Ellen's door because we needed it. We went through our normal nap time routine, but then she wouldn't lay down in the bed. We eventually went ahead and walked out of the room, closed the door slightly, and put the gate up. Ellen ran to the door immediately and started her tirade. After the first 45 minutes, I had to leave for a hair cut appointment. As I left, I walked by the door, glanced at Ellen, and saw that she had already removed her pants (but not her diaper, luckily. She used to pull her pants off in the crib when she was throwing tantrums, but never her diaper) By the time I got home, she was still screaming, but she was at least sitting on her bed. We went in and picked her up and calmed her down and started to worry about the night time. When bed time came around, though, we tried a different approach. After dinner, we had our story time, and then we put her down for bed. This time we sat in there with her and talked her into laying down while I rubbed her back and talked to her about how she was a big girl now and the crib had to be in Phoebe's room for her to use now. I made sure that she understood that mommy and daddy loved her, and we would see her in the morning. I played with her new puppy and had it howl at the glow-in-the-dark moon on the headboard of the bed. She liked that and did the puppy pant along with me. Then she stopped me from rubbing her back. It was as if she had worked up the courage to go to sleep and was ready now. We said our good nights, love you's, and happy dreams, but she did so with a shaky voice that belied her trepidation. Ellen was such a trooper. We didn't hear a peep out of her the rest of the night. We put the gate on just in case and left the door cracked slightly as requested. El didn't wake up until 6.30am the next morning. If only Phoebe had slept that well.
After that, it got easier and easier to put her down to the point where we do exactly the same routine we used to do when she was in the crib. And Ellen, in turn, pretty much does the same thing she used to do in the crib, wait until we get out of the room and then start crying for daddy. But she stays in bed, and she does fall asleep eventually, so that's good.
We also added a new step in our bed time routine. We ask if Ellen wants to use the big toilet before going to bed. Last night, she pee'd in the toilet just like she'd been doing it all along. Tonight she wasn't as interested in it, but that's ok. We'll keep trying it. She's starting to get it and get into it.
Well, that's all I can think of at the moment. We'll talk later.
Journal Entry: April 2, 2003