Phoebe : Month 3
Phoebe turned 3 months old this past weekend. She seems to be hitting her developmental marks ok. She had been sick my first 2 weeks off for sabbatical (along with myself and Ellen), but we're all better now. She's very smiley and social now. That's great when she's awake. Not so good when she needs to sleep. Phoebe is sleeping pretty well at night. We can even put her in the bassinet for some of it. She has 2 main stretches from around 10 to 3am, then again until 5 or so. Then again from 6 to 8am-ish. The day time naps aren't going so well still. We try to get her down every 2 hours, but she's stubborn. I can get her to fall asleep in my arms no problem. But as soon as I lay her down in the crib, she's awake.
We went back and checked the journals for Ellen, and we found that Ellen wasn't the model sleeper that we want to remember. It was just easier with her because we didn't have to worry about waking up another sleeping child with all the screaming that comes with sleep training. That's the most difficult thing we're dealing with right now. The mornings are full of errands, trips to park, library, grocery store, roller skating, music, swimming, etc. So Phoebe has time to fall asleep in the car. The afternoons are a different story. Jada finishes feeding Phoebe and heads to work around 11.30am. I put Ellen down for her afternoon nap at noon. Then the clock starts for Jada's return. "Gotta make it until 4.30pm." Phoebe still won't take a bottle, but not for lack of trying. So we've come to an truce. I don't force the bottle on her constantly, and she'll try not to scream the entire afternoon. I can get her to fall asleep around 12:30 or 1pm. She'll typically sleep for about 30 to 45 mintues in my arms because she wakes up as soon as she touches fabric that's on the crib. I try to put her down at least 3 times before I give up on it. Then she'll wake up, we play a little bit, and I try to put her back to sleep. I can sometimes get her to sleep the rest of the time Ellen is asleep (~2.30 - 3.00pm). Then the screaming starts around that time. It's especially fun when both of the girls are having rotten afternoons. It sure makes for a day I wish I was back at work.
I think we are just going to have to bite the bullet and let Phoebe cry now that she's getting older. It's not going to be fun for anyone. Especially Ellen who is inconsolable if she doesn't get enough sleep. My other mistake was not starting Phoebe on a bottle early enough. Ellen was better with the bottle because she had to use all sorts of things to learn how to suck properly before she got the hang of breast. Since Phoebe took to the breast right away, we didn't push the bottle early enough. It's certainly going to prohibit us from going out without her for quite some time. But at least we now know that she can last up to about 5 hours without eating.
Ellen has had a miserable couple weeks. She's still happy, but she had her first ear infection in over a year. We started seeing spots on her nose and cheek so we called the doctor. We went in and they said it was most likely impetigo caused by the bacteria from the stuff draining out of her ear. The doctor said she couldn't see the tube still in that ear, but it could have been obscured by the gunk. So she is back on the antibiotics. It's been a long time since she has had to take any of that, but it's been going pretty well. She has taken the medicine without too much fuss. She protests, but she does finally take it without us needing to open her mouth for her. We're hoping for an end to this illness soon, and that Phoebe never has to deal with it. Ellen's current height is 33 and 1/3 inches and weight is 28 lbs, 2 oz.
I took Ellen for her first bike ride of the season last week. It was an errand to Performance Bike Shop for a sale. It was a good trip. I think it was 10 miles round trip. We're hoping to make another trip soon. There's another sale starting this week, and I always need more tubes, tools, shorts, shirts, gloves, etc. I'd like to do some longer trips as well.
Ellen is becoming quite the joker and singer. She is always making up her own songs or different words to the songs she knows. ("Old MacDonald has a farm. On that farm he had a truck") She also will say things like "Rooster goes woof". Then we'll say, no, what does a rooster say? and she'll say the right thing. It's very cute.
Also, new Ellen word for the month: Saweggi. (That's her word for spaghetti).
Phoebe's Christening has been scheduled for Father's day at St. Mary's Cathedral in Portland. The Godparents are Laurie Manghelli and Peter Apostolakis. Laurie is also a teacher in Beaverton and has known Jada for several years. She took care of Ellen for us when we went to the hospital to have Phoebe. She's the "real" Catholic for our Christening purposes. Peter is a fellow University of Illinois alumn with a PhD in Electrical Engineering. He works at Intel on the same campus I do. I've known for almost 10 years now. He's Greek Orthodox, which is pretty close to Catholocism rule wise.
Journal entry: June 5, 2003.