3 months 1 week...

Manipulation is defined as: to negotiate, control, or influence (something or someone) cleverly, skilfully, or DEVIOUSLY.

I believe Zuri is a master manipulator at her old age of 14 weeks (yes, not 13). For the past few weeks Zuri went from being an AMAZING sleeper with a Dragon day personality, to a HORRIBLE sleeper with a pretty decent day personality. I have been trying to get her to take naps about every two hours, if I catch her in time she goes down without any problem. The new problems have been the night time and then she decided she didn't want her pacifier. Of course pacifiers are not my favorite item, however, they were allowing me to put her down drowsy and keep her down. But with the hating of the pacifier also came, any and all, denial of going to sleep without me.

Yesterday my mom found a different type of pacifier that Zuri seemed to take, I was thinking this would be very helpful! I put her to bed and she woke up 45 minutes later. Just as I was falling asleep. I had Pedro go in and try to give her the pacifier, she started SCREAMING. After a few minutes I came in and she wanted to nurse back to sleep. She slept for about an hour and a half the next time and I tried to give her the paci and she screamed so again I gave in and nursed her back to sleep. This continued ALL night and has been similar on MOST nights for the past (nearly) 3 weeks. My doctor and everything that I have read says that about 4 months they know the difference and you can try "sleep training".

Today I decided that I would call the doctor to make sure that there isn't anything WRONG with her. Not just because of the sleeping, but because of the dramatic change in behavior, plus massive drooling and her snotty nose (going on 7 weeks of a snotty nose). Mainly because I will be traveling to CA with her for the weekend for work (I am so sorry to all passengers on our flight). The nurse decided we should come in and just make sure she doesn't have an ear infection or sinus infection before flying. I talked to the doctor and she said that Zuri is snotty, but that it seems like some babies are snotty like this and to try a humidifier. No earache. But she said that her change in behavior is probably a combination of starting to teethe (which can show symptoms for weeks/months before teeth erupt) and her personality. That is all I needed to hear to know that I need to start her sleep training NOW. If there is nothing wrong with her than she is just really manipulating me.

I know it will be very hard. Not necessarily hard hearing her cry, since she has cried a lot throughout her life. But hard because I will want to give in when I am tired. I am just hoping that my stubborness is more than hers! Which may or may not be the case since she has both of her parents genes, getting the combination of Pedro and I could be scary!

Today for her nap, I fed her and she was asleep when I laid her down. She woke up 40 minutes later screaming. I went in and unswaddled her and tried to give her the paci. She refused and screamed more. I left. 10 minutes later I returned, I tried to give her the paci and hold her hand for about 1 min and she kept screaming so I left again. When I left the room I went to the computer room and put the music on so I couldn't hear her scream. This went on for over 2 hours. She ended up falling asleep on one of the times I came in and gave her the pacifier. She ended up sleeping for about 2 hours and 15 minutes after all was said and done. I am just hoping that I can maintain and follow through during the night, when things are more difficult to do.

Hopefully, my next post will be about my amazing night sleep!

Zuri weighed 12lbs 6oz (naked).

3 MONTHS!!

I can't believe Zuri is 3 months old! In both respects, I feel like she has been here FOREVER and I feel like she can't be 3 months old yet!

How have things been going??...

That is a difficult answer.


We had some sleep regression. What caused it? Who knows. We were going along, somewhat merrily at night...then BAM! We had wake ups nearly every 1.5 hours, seriously. Now when I say "we" I am usually referring to Zuri and I, just in case you were wondering. It was HORRIBLE. I was so tired. Having about 4 hours of sleep spread out over about 9 hours, is miserable.

Then I bought her some Gripe water. I wasn't actually looking for it, but instead I was looking for something, anything that might make her feel better so she would sleep better. Does it work? It seems like it? But who knows what each day will bring. We also tried a chiropractic appointment today to help. We shall see. She is still very snotty. She has been since the end of February. I am wondering if she is allergic to something.

Anyway, let me tell you how our day went today.

We got up at 2:00am to eat. 6:00am to eat. Followed by a wakeup for the day at 8:00am. We got up and I unswaddled her and she played in her crib for about 40 minutes. I then dressed her and we watched tv for a few minutes, she ate some and then we played for a little more. At about 9:15 she was getting slow moving. So, I swaddled her back up and she went back to sleep at about 9:40. I then laid down for a short nap! She woke up at 10:20, her usual 40 minute wake up. I have read that babies wake up after 40 minutes and need to learn to go back to sleep. At this point she was WIDE awake. I picked her up and rocked her (I know rocking is bad, but no nap is worse at this point), she fell back asleep and slept until 12:15.

We played for a bit more, had another snack and then we were excited for our first gym visit! I had called to reserve a spot at 12:30, but the next available time was 1:30. Having an infant that takes variable length of naps, makes scheduling ahead a pain, especially since her happy awake time is very small. We got ready for the gym, this time Pedro is part of the "we". We headed to the gym at 1:15. While driving there she starts rubbing her eyes. Not a good sign at all. I was getting a little worried because that is one of her first tired signs. At the gym after we got her into the infant room, I told the lady that she was a "holding" baby and that she doesn't play too much on her own right now. She was already getting crabby. NOT GOOD.

Pedro and I headed upstairs, me with my fingers crossed. I worked out for about 20 minutes and I got the page to come and get my screaming baby. Not good. I went downstairs and she was wailing. I picked her up, which eased the crying and walked her around and she stopped. But I knew that bringing her back in would not be successful. So, I told Pedro that Zuri and I would go for a walk to REI. We left and she was asleep on our walk (which is about a block away). Sadly, we had a chiropractic appointment for her at 3:00 and she was asleep already. UGH!

We got back in the car and she woke up. We drove to the chiropractor. He talked and talked and then worked on Pedro then Zuri. At this point Zuri was screaming because she was so tired. We got home at 3:40 and I had her asleep by 3:45. She then slept until 6:45. She got up and was happy. We went for a walk and then decided to sit down on the sofa and see how she was feeling, since dinner was almost ready at 8:00. At this point she got fussy. So, back upstairs and swaddled and fed, she was asleep by 8:40.

That has been our day. Which is very similar to yesterday.


Easter went well, she slept through church and was just ok while we were eating. She wanted to be walked around a bit, but she wasn't screaming. She was super cute in her outfit. I had stayed at my moms the night before since Pedro is working nights and she was not sleeping and so my mom helped me with a 2:00am feeding and I got to get some sleep, which was very exciting.

(I weighed her at the gym and she was 12lbs 8oz, minus clothes so about 12lbs 5oz so up about 1lb in two weeks).


Here are some pictures of the week:

Random Pictures...

11 weeks...

Every time I say that Zuri is getting better, she has days of SCREAMING. Yes, full days of entertainment necessary or she screams. We went to the doctor yesterday because she has a rash/dry skin issue on her elbows. The doctor said it is eczema and to put a good cream on her elbows and if it doesn't get better try a cortisone cream. Anyway, she was weighed and she now weighs 11lbs and 6 oz. We didn't measure her length. She is still around the 42 percentile in weight. The doctor asked how the screaming has been and I explained that it is still bad. She asked what stops it and I told her, walks, watching basketball practice where I am yelling, running in the stroller and the night. She said that means that she is fine, just high energy. She said that she hopes that when she is able to crawl etc. that she will exhaust her energy. Then she followed that with, or maybe when she is old enough to play basketball it will get better. I guess she just got my temper tantrums from when I was little and Pedro's personality, put those together and a DRAGON was born.

I think part of her problem is her napping skills. I am not one to read a book about babies and what to do, but I have (at the direction of my doctor) read a book about sleeping skills. It suggested that she needs a morning nap, maybe even after being awake for an hour. Followed by a long afternoon nap, hopefully around 1-2pm and a brief nap in the evening. That being awake for more than 2 hours will put her into a grouchy horrible mood. Well, that would describe Zuri's mood! She has days with no naps! Then days with a 4 hour nap! But then up the rest of the day, yesterday she was up for 8 straight hours, imagine what the DRAGON was like! Today she took a short nap in the morning and that has been going decently. She wants to take her afternoon nap around 3:30. Which is fine if I put her to bed later. Last night I started putting her to bed at 7:30. She was a real grouch. It took nearly an hour but she went to sleep and we had wake ups at 915 to eat (she wasn't real thrilled to be eating at 7:30 since she was screaming), 210 and then at 510. I was wondering when her wake up time would be, but she surprised me and slept until 8:40.

Anyway, in this process of writing this, I had a long break between writing this because we were watching the UConn game, but she just went to bed it is 8:15, in her own bed. We had our first time of just SITTING, yes, most people have babies that will just sit and be held. Nope, not our DRAGON, she is never content to just sit. Today we watched nearly the entire first half of the UConn game together. Actually, all of us. It would have been a funny picture. Me sitting with Zuri next to me with my arm behind her, Stella between my legs, Polar laying on my side on my leg and Pedro sitting in front of Polar. All of us on a small square of the sofa! However, the second half of the game was the usual screaming. I had to walk her outside to calm her down and she started to doze off. I knew she was tired, she kept taking short naps today and not staying asleep because we were out and about.

Anyway, 3 months is coming quickly. Which means that she will be able to go to the gym. This means that IF she were to behave it would mean that I could get a full 2 hour workout without having to be running with her or something. The chances of behaving? Pretty slim. Here is to hoping for a big behavior change in a week!

Here are the pictures from the week:

9 weeks..

Zuri has been behaving a little better. Each week is better. We get a few minutes of sitting down without entertaining her, but then she gets unhappy again. Her nights have been pretty consistent and pretty good (always knocking on wood!), she sleeps from 8:30-10:00, when I wake her up and feed her. Generally, sleeps until 6-7am, but sometimes has a feed in there around 2. Then has laid in the cradle until about 9:00 or so. She really enjoys going outside and thanks to the weather that is now an option.

Crazy how fast she grows. We are wearing our 3 month clothes and in dresses she can wear even bigger sizes because they are length based and she is pretty long.

Here are the pictures from her first St. Patricks Day...




Here she is in her new Jumperoo, sadly this happiness ended when she hit her head on the seat :(


Breakfast at the popular Snooze restaurant..she is "ooooing" at the menu



Enjoying her favorite activity...Watching the ceiling fan (this is also short lived content)..

2 months!

Still can't believe that Zuri is 2 months old! Seems like she has been here forever!

Her two month checkup went pretty well. She has had a cold for a few days so they checked her for that and then we discussed her day time unhappiness, which has been a lot better, but still not great. The doctor said that since she sleeps so well at night that she thinks that there is absolutely nothing wrong with her, causing her to be unhappy during the day. So pretty much, deal with it.

Two days before her doctor visit we had a horrible night. She was screaming and did not want to eat, sleep or anything else. I don't usually have this problem at night. Finally, Pedro put her in the bjorn and she was a bit happier and fell asleep. We put her to bed around 10:30 (way past her bedtime and she had no naps that day), she continued to get up and scream. Finally around 11:00 she fell asleep, only to wake up around 4:40am for the day! It was not good!

Anyway, her stats for her visit were:

Weight: 10lbs 10oz. (45%)
Length: 23.25inches (83%)
Head: 15 (33%)

I am not sure that the measurements are correct, I didn't see her do these and she said she doesn't usually work with babies.

Then we had her first vaccine. I figured with her lack of sleep the day before, her cold and now vaccines, I would go with one (combo) vaccine for the day and space them out a bit more. She screamed for the shot, but by the time we were at the car she was sleeping. And she continued to sleep the whole day....and night....and besides having feedings, she slept until 10:00am the next day. It was the most sleep EVER! She was obviously exhausted.

Here are a few pictures of her:


Here she was napping on our 4 mile run:



Cute outfit:



Milk Coma!


First skirt of her life!

7 weeks..

Zuri and I have had an interesting week. First off, in my last post I forgot to say that she has been in her size 1 diapers for about 2 weeks now. Which I thought looked huge, but they are way better, less explosions! The last few days she has officially transitioned into fitting better in the 3 month clothes (not a lot of 0-3 month clothes, so those would be good too). She is still skinny so the tops are a bit loose but the length on them is much better.

She continues to talk to me and enjoys when I stick my tongue out at her. This seems to make her smile and I have even gotten a few squeals. She also enjoys me doing the itsy bitsy spider, while she is laying on the changing table.

With her evenings being pretty fussy, I have now begun putting her to bed at 8:30. This is pretty nice because it gives me (or if Pedro is off, us) a bit of time alone without her. She is pretty high maintenance! I have been putting her to bed when she is still partially awake. This way I am not rocking her to sleep. Sometimes she wakes up a few times and I go in and give her the pacifier and she goes back to sleep. I then wake her up (quietly wake her) around 10:00 if that is when I am ready for bed, to eat again before bed. With our fingers crossed, I put her down and she will sleep until about 4:00 or so. Which then means she will sleep for about 3-4 more hours after. The other night, however, she woke up at 2:00, which I knew was a bad sign because it was followed by a 6:00am wake up! Which I was NOT ready for! But then on my birthday, she slept until 5:15! Then got up around 8:15.

She has also been doing a better job (not great) or relaxing. Meaning I have had her sit with me for about 10 minutes without starting to cry. Yes, sadly this is a record! She does not like just sitting with me and watching tv, or doing anything else. I have also gotten her to take a few naps this week. Two of them in the swing. I have done this by feeding her when she is even a little fussy, not feeding her to sleep, but I decided to see if it was hunger causing the problem. So, if she won't go to sleep in her chair and she is being pretty fussy, I see if she wants to eat again and then try again. This has seemed to work. Naps have allowed me to get some things done, including eating without a child attached to me and biking.

Yesterday, we went shopping for Zuri at a consignment sale. She got a lot of clothes! We needed some 3 month clothing, but also now that we can guess she is just ahead or nearly on track for sizes, we could estimate what we would need for the summer (6 month clothing, a few 6-9 month stuff). It was great to be able to buy clothes for cheap! Then we went to the mall to exchange the size of shoes Pedro had bought me for my birthday. I didn't want her sleeping all day so we put her in the baby bjorn and faced her out and Pedro walked with her. She enjoyed it very much!

Today Zuri had her first trip to the zoo!! Karen, Grey, Ashby and Zuri and I went for a short bit this morning. It was a great day, near 70 degrees! She started in her stroller which only lasted about 20 minutes. Usually she loves her stroller, but today she was grumpy. So, I took her out and put her in the baby bjorn, I had to face her towards me because she doesn't like the sun in her eyes (I think she likes facing out better). Where she screamed for a bit. Then I got her to go to sleep. Then she woke up and screamed some more...this went on for the whole time we are at the zoo. Then on the drive home, she pretty much screamed the whole way home. So, it was not a joyous first trip to the zoo. When Grey was asked what animals he saw at the zoo today, he said "Penguins, Monkeys and Baby Zuri!"



We go to the doctor this Thursday for her two month checkup, I will be curious how she is growing!

Her new bow :)





Grey comforting Zuri! He LOVES "Baby Zuri!"