Riley had quite a few admiring fans at Becky’s party on Friday night… and it turns out Becky is quite the baby snatcher! We’d been in the door only a few moments before Becky had her out of the car seat and disappeared into the midst of the party, Elise shouting for me to quick!, follow her! Riley seemed to enjoy it though. Later in the evening when she was getting a bit fussy and we were fixin’ to leave, Becky swept her away again, this time employing her fancy deep-knee-bend-baby-soothing-squat maneuver, to great effect. When we found her later Riley was fast asleep! Very impressive.
February 25th, 2006 in
Happenings |
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My parents are back! And not a moment too soon. My mom took over the morning feeding so she and Riley can spend some quality time together and Sage and I can sleep a few extra hours. Riley’s generally wide awake by around 6am, and so is Mom, so she takes her for a walk in the bjorn (often with a Starbucks pit stop for a double espresso) and keeps her amused till I drag myself out of bed. Makes life so much nicer for everyone involved. And my Dad continues to keep us well fed with his fantastic dinners… a recent example of which is coq au vin (no joke, we’re seriously gourmet around here these days). Life is pretty good…
February 23rd, 2006 in
Happenings |
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We have a new system: Elise does the first couple feedings (usually around midnight, 3am), and I do everything after 5 or 6 (with the bottle). That way I get 5-6 hours of uninterrupted sleep, and she gets a decent block in the morning. (It turns out the bottle isn’t quite the miracle for bleary-eyed breastfeeding mothers I thought it would be… if you don’t breastfeed, you still need to pump.)
Then Riley and I both try to get at least a short nap in the afternoon…
February 11th, 2006 in
Happenings,
Pictures |
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She’s supposed to get 5 minutes a day, although Riley seems to get enough after 3 or 4. I don’t see why—it looks like such a fun place to play!
Today Riley had her 1 month check-up with our favorite pediatrician Dr. Drucker, who confirmed our suspician that Riley continus to be a champion eater… she’s curently weighing in at 11 lb 2 oz (92%) and is 22.25 inches long (87%)! The low-point of the visit for Riley was getting her 2nd hep B shot, and for us was the news that the 2nd month of infancy is the “not so cute” month… something about face rashes and craddle cap. Sounds awful, but I’m sure we’ll still think our Riley is the most beautiful baby in the world. And she still seems pretty little to me.
February 10th, 2006 in
Happenings |
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We have to thank our fantastic babysitters Becca and Mrudula for taking care of Riley while we went to our salsa class last week. I was very nervous that she would be in a screaming fussy mood and scare them off, but apparently once they put her in the baby bjorn carrier she slept the whole time! Lucky girls.
Riley really is no match for the bjorn… a few minutes of bouncing or brisk walking (she won’t accept a strolling pace) and she’s totally out. or at least calmed down.
This week unfortunatly we missed our salsa class, even though Becca had generously offered to babysit again, because I’m sick. I even had a fever! I’ve never ever had a fever before and it was 102. I guess parenting and sleep deprivation can really wear you down… Luckily my parents are coming back this weekend to help out. Yay for grandparents.
February 9th, 2006 in
Happenings |
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Some more pictures are up, mostly of Riley sleeping…
February 3rd, 2006 in
Pictures |
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In the beginning, it was easy: shoosh, swaddle, suck, swing. It soon became apparent that Riley wasn’t all that into being tightly swaddled, though, and although sucking on your finger is apparently pretty great, she’s is a little fickle when it comes to the pacifier. Lucky for us, we had a secret weapon: the up-and-down bouncey free-fall maneuver.
Alas, in these trying times (3-6 weeks is a difficult time for babies), on occasion even the bouncey-bouncey doesn’t quite do the trick. I suppose we’ve been lucky that her most difficult period is typically in the evening (and not, say, the wee hours of the morning), but even so consoling a fussy Riley is a tiring process. Fortunately, we’ve discovered a new secret weapon!
It began with a recommendation from the baby book: using a hair dryer can help prevent diaper rash by getting her bottom dry before going back into a new daiper. It didn’t take long to notice that it did a great job of calming her down, too. These days, we don’t even have to blow the warm air on her (although sometimes that helps)—the noise alone works wonders when she’s just too hungry and worked up to start feeding.
First successful one, that is. This means I can help out with the nighttime feedings… Yippee! Good thing she’s so cute. Well, both of them.
January 29th, 2006 in
Milestones |
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On Thursday night Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Les were kind enough to babysit for little Riley while we went out to a salsa class. Luckily she behaved pretty well for the whole hour we were gone (or that was the report anyway). It’s been great having family around (4 grandparents!), lots of hands to hold the baby and to take turns bouncing her when she gets fussy. Everyone is leaving this weekend though and we’ll be alone with Riley…
