Guess who is 9 months old today!

Yeah, it's Sarah! She's 1/2 way to Nursery! Actually, that makes me sad. She hasn't become enough of a trouble during church to want to stick her in Nursery yet. Besides, I have a lot of people who offer to hold her for me during Relief Society, so it's all good.

Here is a shot of Sarah at bedtime tonight. That mark above her right eye is actually a small collection of bruises from hitting her head on the crib when she wants to get out. I had to take out the bumper pads because all she would do is pull them down and lie on them.


Here is Sarah at nap time today. I went in to wake her up so we could run some errands. I wish I could sleep so solidly!

I rubbed her back, but she didn't stir until I turned the air purifier off. (I learned on the plane ride to Chicago that Sarah sleeps really well with a loud noise in the room. I tried to find a reasonably priced white noise machine, but then realized that we already have something that is really noise...when it's turned up to 'turbo'.)

Sarah has really turned into a twisting, grunting, crawling creature. It has become rather difficult to change her diapers and dress her. I was trying to think of an analogy to illustrate what it's like to get pants on her, but all I could come up with was it's like trying to dress a wriggling baby! How clever is that? I did think that it would be easier to last 8 seconds on a rodeo bull, than to get her dressed!

She's started saying," mamama" and "dada" and "baba." It's very cute. Her fine motor skills are sharper every day as she finds the tiniest pieces of junk on the carpet to pick out and eat. She goes right past the safe baby toys, straight for the choking hazards. It's lots of fun.


Also napping today were Leah and Joseph. Leah was complaining that she was bored so I suggested she could take a nap with Joseph. At first she rejected my idea, but then decided to give it a try. They look cute!

Too Slow

I was a little late calling Joseph up for his nap today. Apparently, I didn't need to worry. We usually put toys in these bins. I guess "little boys" works, too.

I made Sarah's Easter dress on Tuesday. I still have Leah's and Rebekah's to go. For as productive as I've been lately, I'll need all the time from now until Easter to get them done.

I'm asleep...oh, no I'm not...wait - yes, I am...

Sarah is playing a peek-a-boo game of nap time with me.

I nursed her until she was a dead weight. She whimpered as I put her into bed, but found a comfortable position and stayed asleep. She was good for about 35-40 minutes and then it was the beginning of the end.

I'm not sure if she woke Joseph, or if it was the other way around, but she wouldn't settle back to sleep on her own. And I gave her plenty of opportunity. After the pillow muffled the sound of her crying but not the sound of my guilt, I got up and tried putting her in the swing. That didn't work the magic I was hoping for. I found a pacifier.

Sarah is a little delayed in her pacifier addiction. I'm still hoping for one, but it's been slow going. I held the pacifier in her mouth as the swing went back and forth while I rested my sleepy head on her crib railing. Eventually, she kept it in by herself and seemed at peace so I snuck back to bed.

As soon as I pulled the covers up to my shoulders, I heard crying anew. I tried an earplug for the ear not against the pillow. The sound was still loud enough to make it through the pillow to the other ear. I started putting an ear plug in both ears but realized that she was crying enough to ruin my efforts. So I got up and figured I could hold her and work on a scrapbook page.

I made sure I went to the bathroom (while my arms were still free) and went looking for my slippers (because my feet were cold). By the time that was accomplished, she was asleep! Grrr! I felt too awake to go back to bed so I plopped myself down at the computer. Since I've been typing, she's been crying, silent and now crying again. I guess nap time is over. Maybe I was supposed to ask for her permission to nap first. This may be a punishment. I sure feels like one.

Shaken Baby

Before my nap I had the house phone and my cell phone on the bed with me. I also had Sarah on the bed.

Eventually, Sarah woke up and wanted a snack before she'd go back to sleep. I finally got her to sleep again, including positioning her just right on Chad's pillow, tucking in the bedding around her and even putting my pillow on her (not her face!).

Then I started looking for my cell phone because I wanted to make a long-distance phone call. I could find the house phone, but no cell phone. I knew it was there somewhere! I kept patting the covers, feeling around and under and even peeking in the spaces by Sarah. I finally gave up the blind searching and decided to use my ears, too. I called the cell phone with the house phone. I could hear it vibrate, then I heard it ring. It appeared that Sarah could hear it, too, because she started to wiggle. Oh no! I don't want that! So I hung up and renewed my search efforts.

I concentrated my search closer to Sarah since it was obviously close to her. The more invasive I got, the more worried I was that she'd wake up. Off came the pillow, back came one blanket, then the next, then the sheet. Well no wonder she'd started wiggling as soon as the phone started to vibrate; she was on top of it! There's nothing like a soothing massage in the small of a baby's back to ensure a restful afternoon nap.

Oh, my aching EVERYTHING!

I feel like boards have been strapped to my sides with elastic cords. I should at least look skinnier!

Joseph has been cutting eye teeth (everyone groan...he's been miserable). He apparently also has a cold because even if every eye tooth were popping out a the same time, I wouldn't expect this much goop. He was reintroduced to the nose sucker yesterday. He started coughing yesterday (sorry, Krissy) and nap time has been a victim of his discomfort.

When Joseph's nap suffers, so does mine. I had taken some Benadryl yesterday and was especially tired. When Joseph choked himself awake, I couldn't let him cry it out as he would likely need several tissues.

So for the past TWO days, I've finished my naps on Joseph's floor. (He stops crying and goes back to sleep when I'm there. I really hoping he doesn't get used to the situation.) Two blankets folded into thirds have nothing over my 3" memory foam pad over a pillow top mattress. I keep telling myself it's a luxury compared to sleeping on a sidewalk (so glad I'm not homeless). It does create some extra weird dreams.

I sleep for a while on one side, flip to the other when I can't take anymore, and then gingerly and with the speed of a giant land tortoise, stand up and drag my pillows out. He didn't sound as congested today. Maybe that means I only have one more day of this?

Stinker

It was something of a miracle that we all got a nap today. I sure enjoyed mine and was disappointed when I could hear Joseph "talking" in his room. All that separates my head from his crib is a headboard and a wall. I thought I'd try to ignore the talking and wait until he started crying so I snuggled back into the pillow.

That's when the banging started. I thought it was probably Rebekah doing something or other in there by Joseph's crib. After about 10 bangs, some of which were pretty loud, I got out of bed to get after the noisy kids. I was surprised to see that both girls were asleep. Joseph was banging his head on the wall! I think he was trying to look between the crib and the wall, but that's only a guess.

I tried to get to my camera in time, but these were the shots I got instead. He saw the camera poking around the corner and knew I couldn't be too far away!




He's a stinker. A cute stinker. But definitely a stinker.

LOOK at those teeth!