7QT

Wow!  The baby is sleeping, I'm waiting for oatmeal bake to come out of the oven... so I'm going to try to bust out some quick takes before the other kids wake up!  Here goes!

(actually I finished this post 36 hours later...)

--1--

I have neglected to blog about baby J's checkups... here's the stats from her last two really quickly.

1-month checkup:

Height: 22 inches (95th percentile)

Weight: 9.26 lbs (48th percentile)

2-month checkup:

Height: 23 inches (76th percentile)

Weight: 10.58 lbs (32nd percentile)

She is growing and developing just as a baby should, and still delights us all with her smiles and talking.  Lately she is not to be left out of the action!  She will fuss if she's ever left alone but a little attention and chatting from a family member will cheer her right up.  Luckily there are a lot of us to help out with that.

 

--2--

I have been working on getting J to sleep in her crib during the day for naps, because if she can do it, it's definitely more restful for her and it means I can focus on the other kids a little more.  I have had some success with it, and other days it's just not happening.  C'est la vie.

 Nighttime sleep with her has been variable.  I think last time I recorded things like this, at one month, she was waking up once in the night.  There was a glorious period of about one week just before Thanksgiving in which she slept a 12-hour stretch every night for seven days in a row.  That was awesome!  Now we're back to at least one wake-up every night, sometimes two or even three.  We just moved her into her own room last weekend, and although the re-claimed privacy is nice for me and M, I think she is adjusting to the new space and waking up a bit more.  As it goes for the first 12 months with baby, everything is trial and error and sleep is just a gamble.  My experience is that there is no magic bullet that will work every night for every baby (swaddle, cry it out, co-sleep, anything else that people argue about on the internet!).  The only thing that has consistently made all three of the older girls sleep through the night is weaning them from breastfeeding, and I won't be doing that for a while.  Anyway, it has been a tough coffee-filled week for me (I am not one of those people that can function well on less than 8 hours), but I know there are moms of 3-month-olds that are getting far less sleep than I am, so I have to give baby J a few kudos!

--3--

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I guess I never blogged about it!

It was really wonderful.  We started a new tradition by running a local road race rather than the one close to my parents' house that we usually do.  It was only a 5K and start time was 8 AM so that gave us plenty of leeway to make it down to CT for the feast.

 

My net time was 31:53, a 10:15 average pace, which I was very pleased with being only 2 months postpartum.  Since it was a last-minute decision to run, my only goal was to beat my 34-ish minute time from the last time I ran a 5K (before N was born).  I had been averaging a 12- to 13-minute pace whenever I ran outside, so I was happy that I was able to push just a little that day and meet my goal.  M totally killed it with a time of 20:23... he placed 5th in his age bracket!!  Whoa!!!

These past two weeks I have taken completely off from exercise.  I'm thinking a lot about where I want to head with it in the future.  It's getting harder and harder to squeeze it in every day.  Also, my body is definitely healing from pregnancy and childbirth more slowly this time around.  I wonder if I jumped back into activity a little too quickly-- these two weeks have rest have felt like absolutely the right thing to do.  I plan to keep resting until the new year.

I have been doing a lot of reading on a site called healthy habits happy moms-- they have tons of helpful suggestions for postpartum exercises that are healthy and healing for your body, plus plenty of wisdom on being patient and implementing lifestyle changes that are sustainable.  I'm excited to learn more and try some of the exercises and take things slowly.

--4--

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with my parents-- and the day afterwards we enjoyed a picnic and a short hike in a nearby state park.  It was one of those perfect days... a much needed rest in a busy time of life for us all.  I was definitely SO thankful for my family that day!

 

--5--

We had a great time this week making elves and penguins.

The girls spent easily four hours on this activity.  The finished elves and their "pet penguins" came out so cute an they have been playing with them so much ever since.  It's amazing what entertainment some paper and printer ink can provide, when combined with a little imagination.  :)

Oh, and back on Thanksgiving I meant to tell you that we made paper bag puppets and those were the source of much joy and hilarious puppet shows too!  I highly recommend them!

--6--

The other day we had the most wonderful afternoon... there is a "play cafe" here in town-- basically a giant indoor play structure with an adjacent coffee shop where parents can sit.  A friend of mine gave me a gift certificate here when J was born-- the most perfect idea ever for a homeschooling Mom with a new baby.  I enjoyed a pumpkin spice latte while catching up on email, the bigger girls burned off some steam, and I ordered them lunch when the time came.  It felt pretty luxurious to just sit on my butt and not have to make any food.

 

Thanks so much Tamson!!!

--7--

The girls got a big kick out of this video, since they know both the Brandenburg Concerto on which this is based as well as "Last Christmas" by Wham (I admit to having a cheesy Christmas-tunes-that-you-might-hear-at-the-mall playlist on Spotify... and it may or may not be played often around this house...)

...and inevitably, after watching this video, we wander over to this one:

...which I have to share here as my own homage to The Force Awakens opening this week, just as the rest of the internet world has already done.

{I haven't seen it yet.  DON'T EVEN tell me anything.  I'll be sure to let you know when I have seen it, cuz it will probably be soon.  We'll talk then.}

Have a great weekend everyone!  Happy prepping for Christmas!

(...and for more quick takes, visit This Aint the Lyceum!)