Today we had to go to the doctor for Arielle's two month shots and boy was it heart breaking. First off she did not at ALL like being naked to be weighed...she just freaked out. I found it very hard to leave her on the scale till he had her weight (13lbs) before I scooped her up to comfort her and get a diaper on because I didn't need her peeing on me...lol

THEN came the needles...oh mercy that was painful...I mean emotionally painful...FOR ME! Hearing my baby cry like that was just the worst thing ever I joined her and cried too...nice for me that her doctor is an absolute sweetheart and Jonathan was there to ask the questions we wanted to ask. I just cuddled my baby till she calmed down...they have a nursing room in the office so I was able to feed her before we left (thanks for that tip Krista it worked like a charm!).

I had booked a pedicure for this afternoon so it was nice to relax a bit while Jonathan watched Arielle although she has basically slept and ate since we got home...I'm sure the experience was very traumatic for her...luckily she won't remember it...right? She's not going to remember and then look at me wanting to know why it hurts because frankly my heart is in shambles because of that...and I know it won't be the last time.

I also got my eyebrows threaded today too so I feel a little more presentable to the outside world...my brows were gaining a life of their own I'm surprised I wasn't scaring small children (Arielle) and little animals (Mao) with those huge things...lol

Tomorrow is the golf tournament with Jonathan's family and then we have two MORE days with him home...it's gonna be a good weekend! :)

Okay it happened TWO nights in a row Arielle slept like a champ! I dream fed her (and it miraculously worked!) at about 10 and then she slept till about 1:45 when I fed her again...then the next time I fed her was 6:30!! Then after that she slept to 8:30...craziness! I honestly don't know what to do with myself I feel like I've had so much sleep...eventually I'd like the 1:45 feed to go away but I'm not complaining...TWO 4hr+ blocks is frankly a huge blessing so I'm gonna enjoy that while it lasts.

I'll admit I'm a little fearful about how she'll react to her 2 month shots and really hope that doesn't fubar too much with her hopefully new sleep schedule. But it can't be helped so I shall just pray that the last few days of her actually catching up on sleep will help. That picture right there is one of her many naps...she is actually swaddled, something I thought she didn't like but it turns out that was not the case.

Two nights ago I was literally at my wits end...I had no idea why I couldn't get my baby to sleep and she was crying so much due to being so over tired that it was wearing on Jonathan and I like crazy. Then I remembered a DVD that Krista had given me that I stupidly hadn't watched yet...well I decided that before I put Arielle to bed I was watching it. It's called 'The Happiest Baby on the Block' by Dr. Harvey Karp...there is a book as well that I might be willing to get although I think the DVD was quite informative and dang if it didn't work like a charm!

I didn't realize that Arielle felt so much better when I swaddled her...it turns out I wasn't swaddling her tight enough so her arms could still get out and then she'd freak herself out when her arms would flail around without her control...hence the not sleeping, she'd always wake herself up. The last two nights I've put her to bed tightly swaddled, or wearing the 'Swaddle Me' that Krista had got her. When her arms were kept tightly at her side she slept for a four hour stint without waking up until she was hungry. Heck she even had GAS and I came into the room thinking she'd wake up...all I did was put her soother in her mouth and she farted like a pro without opening her eyes.

I feel like I've finally got my baby back...I'm hoping this will be an ongoing thing...I'm aware that there will be bad nights but man if I can get a couple of these kind of nights in during the week I'll feel way better equipped to deal with the bad nights. The five 'S's that Dr. Karp talks about work like a charm...his reasoning behind why they work is his own and frankly I don't care what it is...lol It works! Ironically one of the S's is shushing...something I HATE when people do it to me...but it is turning into a Godsend when it comes to calming Arielle. Now when she cries it hardly lasts a few minutes before I can calm her with swaddling, side/stomach, shushing, swinging and sucking...sometimes using all five sometimes just a couple.

I'm done promoting things now...since Arielle has put herself to sleep in her chair (I'm trying not to pass out from the shock of this) I'm going to try and do some dishes. :)

I just put these pictures up on facebook and decided to write a blog about them because, well because I can...wanna know why...my baby is actually sleeping! This pleases me to no end...I think she might just be catching up on her sleep...I won't know until she continues this trend tonight but hey I'm gonna be optimistic!

Now about the picture the on the left that was taken when we were taking Arielle home from the hospital. I had to have her in my favourite ladybug outfit that I had picked out with my Aunt. She hardly fit it, we had to put a white onesie on her just to fill it out a bit but really she was swimming in it.

Then today I decided to put her in outfit again and I gotta say she fills it out quite nicely. So I decided to put her on her stomach on the change table and take a picture...mostly because the ladybug on her bum is just so dang cute I can hardly stand it. Then I realized she was just so cute filling it out nicely that I had to post the picture in contrast with the first one because I can't believe how much she has grown in these two short months. It's insane!

She's just so cute isn't she? Frankly looking at the picture again makes me want to just kiss her all over. She's got such an adorable amount of pudge on her now it's crazy! Her cheeks are so filled in you just wanna kiss them. You know I'm not sure how my family can look at pictures of her or see her on skype and not want to kiss the screen! Times like this making me wish there was a way for me to visit my family way more frequently so they could experience this joy with me.

I want my cousin to be able to hold her and my sister to hang out with her and my mom to come over and help me clean my apartment...oh wait my mom to come over and hold her...whoops how did that get in there? ;)

Anyway I just had to share these cute pictures and be a huge shock by posting more than I usually do. We have an event with Jonathan's family this weekend and I'm hoping to get some film so we can take pictures because I'm getting sick and tired of just using my camera. Either that or I'm gonna borrow one of my in-law's cameras I'm sure there will be SOME kicking around!

The ladybug and I are signing off! :)

You know I think it's so cute when people talk about having their kids on a routine...does that actually happen? I don't know if I believe it...every time I even remotely get Arielle close to a routine she'll have a bad night and that'll mess with the next day which then throws off the following day. I try...but apparently Arielle still hasn't read the 'how to' books I've looked at so we're plugging away at each day...I suppose since she is only 2 months old that there is a chance she'll eventually be on a routine...but work with me I haven't had much sleep in the last few days.

Today my sister-in-law is coming over...YAY! She just moved into the city to go to school and (according to me) to hang out with her niece a lot! LOL I'm actually looking forward to getting a chance to vacuum and just clean up this place a bit...some days it's hard for me to get the energy for anything but taking care of Arielle...especially when she spends all day NOT napping...with Janna here she can hang out with Arielle and I can clean, uninterrupted it's sad that this makes me happy...lol

I'm also hoping that if I can even try to get her on a schedule I can actually blog more...I know I've been saying that since I started this thing so don't hold your breath...but really I do have that goal...lol

On Friday is Arielle's 2 month birthday and her first visit to the pediatrician so I'm going to ask him about this wholes gas thing...maybe he'll have some insight...or I'll just have to live through this stage...who knows...at least that afternoon Jonathan will be home and he's buying me a pedicure...so that'll get me through this week. :)

Gonna go try that 'sleep when she sleeps' thing. :P

It's funny what lack of sleep will do to your mind. There are times at night when I'm trying to fall asleep and all I can think of is what I could type into my blog about my daughter's sleeping patterns and what it's like living with an almost 2 month old. You'd think I'd sleep...but no...who needs to sleep...like I said, I spent 30 years sleeping when I wanted...so looks like I'm giving it up for an extremely cute little girl. Okay. :)

Now onto the issue of gas...my little girl has an interesting gas issue. She doesn't have the severe kind of issue that causes colic and lots of crying. She has just enough of an issue that wakes her up in the middle of night...more like between 2 and 4 in the morning...so that I have to calm her down before she can go back to sleep. She's very good about moving her legs to get the gas out but that action keeps her awake and thus keeps mom awake. There are some nights I don't know what to do...she's obviously needing to sleep (as am I) so I take her into bed with me and then she sleeps fine...*sigh* My otherwise rather perfect child just can't seem to sleep through her gas issues.

Now I give her gripe water which seems to help a bit, in fact some times it gets her back to sleep so that I get maybe an extra hour before the gas works itself up again...I've also cut dairy out of my diet, which is difficult...I honestly had no idea so much gas could be inside of such a little girl...but such is the case. Sometimes when she finally 'expels' it she could rival my dad! LOL

So really in the long run I've got it pretty easy as it were...my lack of sleep might disagree but I certainly am not hard done by. In fact right now she is FINALLY doing a long morning nap, one that I have tried to facilitate for the past week...why am I not sleeping? Well laundry is not going to do itself unfortunately...so that is what I get to do...I'll try to nap later after Jonathan has his...*natch*

My only complaint is the lack of camera that I have going on...the only thing I can do is take pictures with my cell phone and I'm sure as you can see that is working all right but not as well as I'd hope...like the other day I really wanted to take a short video of her looking at herself in the mirror (a la the second picture here) but instead I took cell phone pictures...at least there will be some documentation of her cuteness until her parents can invest in a better camera and maybe take pictures of each other with their child. Speaking of said child...she does stir right now so I shall go change a diaper and feed her...you know this mom thing is really quite fun. :)

I'm sure what I was going to write as I was trying to fall asleep was way more profound but ya'll are stuck with this...lol

...how your smile makes my day.

It's been five weeks and some days since you decided to grace us with your amazing presence and I can't remember what life was like without you.

I know there was a time when I used to sleep for eight or more hours in a row. When I could just grab my purse and leave on a last minute errand or when your dad and I could have dinner at the same time.

Those times seem empty in comparison to now. Life is so much richer with you in it. These past five weeks have been the purest happiness I've ever experienced and I can't wait to continue this journey with you. As an oldest child I'm sorry in advance for all of the practise your father and I will unleash on you. We can't help it, you're the first person we've had the privilege to parent and we aren't really sure what we're doing. If it makes you feel any better we both got practised on by our parents so consider it a legacy.

I've been getting a lot of questions about your sleeping patterns lately so if you could give me an idea as to when you want to be consistent with that it would be greatly appreciated. I know you haven't been reading the books I've been reading but in there it seems we can have some sort of schedule arranged by now...not sure exactly how to implement that properly without going insane on my part but I think if you and I work together we can come up with a compromise...yes? I appreciated the nights that you let me sleep more, I just wish I knew when they would be...oh and while we're on the topic is there a reason you seem to scatter those nights in between your hours of full wide eyed awakeness? Just a question.

Right now you seem to really want to cuddle with me...something I love and I know there will be a time when you'll be too busy to cuddle so I'm enjoying this. Thank you for choosing us as your parents we're already blessed to know you and are very proud of you. Keep learning and growing.

Love you always,
Mom