March 31

If this week was the longest week ever, today was the longest day ever.

First, last night was the first time Daisy spent all night in her crib. Until last night, we put her to bed in her crib around 7:30 and she would wake up to eat right as we were going to bed around 10:30. Since I prefer sleep above all other things, I would just bring her into bed with us. She slept right next to me and could nurse whenever she wanted while I remained mostly asleep. I would like to point out that this is *not* what we did with Caleb. Caleb slept in his own crib, in his own room, from day four. By the time he was six months old, he was sleeping through the night.

But Daisy is a different baby with different circumstances. First, we didn't have a bedroom for her when she was born, so she had to stay in our room. Then she started shrinking. She went from 50th percentile at birth to 25th to 15th to... gulp... 11th percentile. Her doctor and I agreed that if Daisy wanted to nurse all night, it was probably because she needed every.single.calorie. I definitely didn't want to supplement with formula when I was making more than enough milk, so I kept her right next to me to encourage her to nurse as much as she wanted. She stayed skinny, but she found her groove. Chris and I grudgingly accepted that we were a bed-sharing family. He gave up precious mattress space, we added a bed rail to our bed, and I resigned myself to the fact that I could only sleep on my back or left side, ever.

But Daisy is nearly eleven months old now. And she squirms. Oh, how she squirms. She kicks me in the head, scratches at the mesh of the bed rail, and is quickly becoming a quite unpleasant bed partner. So last night, I did it. At 11:00 when she wanted to eat, I fed her. Then I put her right back in her crib. She was not happy. She yelled for the next 45 minutes, and I went in every ten to fifteen minutes to remind her that she was ok and that she was sleeping in her crib now. At midnight, I nursed her again, put her in warmer jammies, and laid her back in her crib. She fussed for a while, then fell asleep. At 3 am, she woke up. I spent the next 45 minutes nursing and holding her until she finally fell asleep. And then she woke at 6am.

So. Her first full night in her crib, in her own room. Not exactly a raging success, but a success nonetheless. Let's hope it gets better from here? My goal is to have her sleeping in her room full time by her eleven month birthday (April 4) and sleeping through the night (i.e. night weaned) by her first birthday. I think that's a fair, do-able compromise between her needs and mine.

After that looooong night, we all went to a garage sale to check out a bike trailer. It didn't work out. Then to breakfast, then yard work. Lots of yard work. (Daisy took a two and a half hour nap to compensate for the sleep she missed last night.) After lunch, the neighbor's nephew-in-law cleaned our gutters for us (what a blessing) and his son Caleb played with our son Caleb. The boys were born two days apart, and their baby sisters were born a month apart. Even funnier is that the other Caleb's sister is named Hannah, which was our second-choice name for Daisy.

The boys had so much fun playing with the bubble machine! Then they started saying, "It's raining! It's raining bubbles!" And of course, our Caleb had to get out his umbrella.

Funny boy!

The other Caleb was totally impressed by this move. 

Meanwhile, Daisy had fun trying to catch the bubbles the boys missed.

Later, Chris washed the bubbles off his car, then let Caleb play with the hose. He also gave him a snack of goldfish crackers. Caleb realized that fish swim in rivers, and he was making a river with the hose, so... He sent the goldfish swimming down the river.

Then some friends stopped by to visit. 

Then Maggie stopped by to visit. She heads back to Chicago-land tomorrow; it was so nice having her in town for a week! We sat on the deck, talking, when Caleb said, "I want to show you the pond!" So we all hiked up to the pond. I even remembered to bring some bread to feed the geese!

But the geese wanted nothing to do with us. Maybe it had something to do with the outfit Caleb chose: a muscle shirt, two pairs of pajama shorts, and rain boots. Oh, brother.

Maggie and Daisy snuggled while Caleb tried to coerce the geese into eating his bread.

But the geese wouldn't bite, so he fed the bread to Daisy instead.

Then he charged at me. I think he was trying to force me to eat bread, too. That boy. What a goof!