A couple weekends ago, when I was watching Erin, we went to Target to get some food and other things. While we were there, I got Erin a $4 baby pool... approx. 3' in diameter, it is big enough for her (and maybe another baby or two). We got it out and blew it up, since it was such a nice day today! Here are the pictures (note the floating Basset head in the background of some of the pictures):
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
On Nights
Well, I started night shift on Monday. This week is my "orientation" to nights, so I'm with another nurse full-time. Next week, I start by myself part-time! I'm very excited about the part-time and a little nervous about being by myself. Nights is...probably not for me. The work is SO much slower, and we spend a lot of time doing paperwork and checking things, and less time taking care of patients because the patients are sleeping. It's a lot easier, and I do get paid more with the shift differential, but I still want to switch to days as soon as there's a spot. They'll also have me doing some 3pm-11pm shifts, which I think will be much better. I'm just not a night person.
Yesterday, I had trouble sleeping during the day, but today went better. Bella was able to sleep all night and again during the day. She's so adaptable : ) After tonight and tomorrow night, I'm off until next Wednesday night - not counting a daytime class on Monday. I'm excited about that!
We had a fun weekend in Concord for Ansley's baptism and Uncle Dale's bachelor party! Erin also had fun playing with Grandma on Monday while I slept.
Yesterday, I had trouble sleeping during the day, but today went better. Bella was able to sleep all night and again during the day. She's so adaptable : ) After tonight and tomorrow night, I'm off until next Wednesday night - not counting a daytime class on Monday. I'm excited about that!
We had a fun weekend in Concord for Ansley's baptism and Uncle Dale's bachelor party! Erin also had fun playing with Grandma on Monday while I slept.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Baby Food and Updates
I tried making some baby food for Erin a week or so ago - nothing fancy, I just put one of those Steamfresh bags in the food processor and poured it into ice cube trays. I also got some no-sugar-added canned peaches and pears and blended those up too. So far, the fruit is a big hit, but the veggies aren't. Maybe I didn't process them smoothly enough. I'm definitely not an "organic" mom, but I am all about saving some money! Making my own fruits and veggies is about half the cost of the baby food, but I think the meats will be a bigger savings. I don't see myself making a whole lot of her food, but I figure I'll do some and save a little bit. She also is eating regular (no-sugar-added) applesauce since that's much cheaper for about the same thing as baby food. She's had real bananas mashed up too, and those are hit-or-miss for her liking them. She's also eaten a couple of Cheerios, but she's not too crazy about them.
Sleeping is going well; we are keeping our fingers crossed! Last night, she only made a couple of noises all night and slept over 11 hours! This weekend, I got her up to eat at 5:30am but she went back to sleep after that. So that's good news!
She has started "talking" more lately...today, she kept saying what sounded like "this". I would tell her what whatever she was holding was, just in case she was asking me what "this" was. She's also getting a lot better at using her core muscles, like controlling her body when she sits and leaning over to grab things and straightening back up. Our baby is growing up!
Not much is new otherwise - after this week, I just have one more week on day shift with my preceptor. I think I feel ready to be on my own, but I'm nervous about night shift. We'll see how it goes! Hopefully I can get mostly 3pm-11pm instead of 7pm-7am. Bob has had some kind of weird illness the past 2 days where he gets a low-grade fever in the late afternoon and evening and has an upset stomach, but feels fine early in the day. Any ideas what that is? My speculation is that he doesn't want to help with dinner and dishes and making lunches, but I could be wrong : )
Sleeping is going well; we are keeping our fingers crossed! Last night, she only made a couple of noises all night and slept over 11 hours! This weekend, I got her up to eat at 5:30am but she went back to sleep after that. So that's good news!
She has started "talking" more lately...today, she kept saying what sounded like "this". I would tell her what whatever she was holding was, just in case she was asking me what "this" was. She's also getting a lot better at using her core muscles, like controlling her body when she sits and leaning over to grab things and straightening back up. Our baby is growing up!
Not much is new otherwise - after this week, I just have one more week on day shift with my preceptor. I think I feel ready to be on my own, but I'm nervous about night shift. We'll see how it goes! Hopefully I can get mostly 3pm-11pm instead of 7pm-7am. Bob has had some kind of weird illness the past 2 days where he gets a low-grade fever in the late afternoon and evening and has an upset stomach, but feels fine early in the day. Any ideas what that is? My speculation is that he doesn't want to help with dinner and dishes and making lunches, but I could be wrong : )
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Home Repair
A few weeks back, I noticed a sound which I believed to be birds in the attic one morning while taking a shower. I investigated further, and found that the plastic guard for the bathroom exhaust vent opening on the side of the house had been destroyed, and that birds had started to build a nest in the exhaust tubing.
I decided that since they weren't paying any rent, they needed to go. I struggled for a way to get up to this vent, which was approximately 24 feet off of the ground (which was at a ~7% grade sloping towards the backyard). Not exactly a fun (or very safe) endeavor to try... After making it up about 5 feet on the ladder, Gina advised me that "I needed to get down immediately and stop fooling around"... I guess safety patrol runs in her side of the family :)
Not being able to just climb up a ladder, I was hard pressed for ideas on how to remedy the problem. One approach was to rent a bucket lifter - which would likely get me 24 feet in the air, but at quite a large cost. However, I ended up buying the required part from Lowes, climbing up in the attic, attaching the interior portion of the new vent cover from inside the attic w/ adhesive and screws (and getting to use my new recip saw!). I then tied the exterior piece of the cover to a string in the yard and pulled it up from the attic. With a little adjustment here and there, it finally snapped into place and is all set. I still need to get some new tubing (the birds did a number on the original one), but its almost done.
I decided that since they weren't paying any rent, they needed to go. I struggled for a way to get up to this vent, which was approximately 24 feet off of the ground (which was at a ~7% grade sloping towards the backyard). Not exactly a fun (or very safe) endeavor to try... After making it up about 5 feet on the ladder, Gina advised me that "I needed to get down immediately and stop fooling around"... I guess safety patrol runs in her side of the family :)
Not being able to just climb up a ladder, I was hard pressed for ideas on how to remedy the problem. One approach was to rent a bucket lifter - which would likely get me 24 feet in the air, but at quite a large cost. However, I ended up buying the required part from Lowes, climbing up in the attic, attaching the interior portion of the new vent cover from inside the attic w/ adhesive and screws (and getting to use my new recip saw!). I then tied the exterior piece of the cover to a string in the yard and pulled it up from the attic. With a little adjustment here and there, it finally snapped into place and is all set. I still need to get some new tubing (the birds did a number on the original one), but its almost done.
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| From houseRepair |
Monday, May 11, 2009
The sleep saga continues
This is what we want to have all night long:
After much debate and consulting with books and other people (yes, I have gotten the books out of hiding, but I am thinking about putting them back because I just get discouraged when I read them), we have decided that Erin does not need to eat in the middle of the night, so we are trying to resolve this by letting her cry. I know it sounds horrible, but we hear that this is the quickest way to get her to go back to sleep on her own. There are variations on this, such as checking on them every 5, 10, 15, etc. minutes...but we are "rip the band-aid off quickly" kind of people, so we'd rather hurt more for a short time than drag it out.
So - Friday night, she cried for an hour straight from 1-2am, and I gave in and fed her after Bob had gone in to check on her a few times. Checking on her seemed to make her more mad, so that made us more confident in our plan to just let her go. Saturday night, we stayed strong and listened to her cry for an hour again from 3-4am, but did not go into her room. Last night, she only cried for about 15 minutes around 3am, and it was much less convincing than the night before. Maybe we are on the right track! She's been pretty grumpy during the day for the past few days, probably because of all the screaming at night. Hopefully that will resolve when (if) she stops waking up. On the positive side, she's been taking better and longer naps because of all this. She's also been waking up early, around 6am, but if we can get her to sleep straight from 7pm-6am, that would be fine with us - it would definitely be a huge improvement!
Hopefully this is not cruel! If anyone has any suggestions, we will gladly take them. Otherwise, we had a great weekend and got a lot done. Erin had fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa F. yesterday, and also visited with Liz and David on Saturday. She made her debut as a greeter at church on Sunday and was a huge hit. She's quite the social butterfly! I also got my schedule for June, when I start on my own as a nurse. Good news: I got part-time, and somehow scored no weekend shifts! Bad news: it's night shift. At least I usually have just one overnight (7pm-7am) a week, and other shifts are 3-11pm and 7-11pm. We'll see how it goes!
After much debate and consulting with books and other people (yes, I have gotten the books out of hiding, but I am thinking about putting them back because I just get discouraged when I read them), we have decided that Erin does not need to eat in the middle of the night, so we are trying to resolve this by letting her cry. I know it sounds horrible, but we hear that this is the quickest way to get her to go back to sleep on her own. There are variations on this, such as checking on them every 5, 10, 15, etc. minutes...but we are "rip the band-aid off quickly" kind of people, so we'd rather hurt more for a short time than drag it out.
So - Friday night, she cried for an hour straight from 1-2am, and I gave in and fed her after Bob had gone in to check on her a few times. Checking on her seemed to make her more mad, so that made us more confident in our plan to just let her go. Saturday night, we stayed strong and listened to her cry for an hour again from 3-4am, but did not go into her room. Last night, she only cried for about 15 minutes around 3am, and it was much less convincing than the night before. Maybe we are on the right track! She's been pretty grumpy during the day for the past few days, probably because of all the screaming at night. Hopefully that will resolve when (if) she stops waking up. On the positive side, she's been taking better and longer naps because of all this. She's also been waking up early, around 6am, but if we can get her to sleep straight from 7pm-6am, that would be fine with us - it would definitely be a huge improvement!
Hopefully this is not cruel! If anyone has any suggestions, we will gladly take them. Otherwise, we had a great weekend and got a lot done. Erin had fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa F. yesterday, and also visited with Liz and David on Saturday. She made her debut as a greeter at church on Sunday and was a huge hit. She's quite the social butterfly! I also got my schedule for June, when I start on my own as a nurse. Good news: I got part-time, and somehow scored no weekend shifts! Bad news: it's night shift. At least I usually have just one overnight (7pm-7am) a week, and other shifts are 3-11pm and 7-11pm. We'll see how it goes!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Happy Birthday, Daddy!
Today was Bob's birthday, and I'd say Erin gave him a decent gift - she slept in until 7:45am and took a good nap after daycare, so he got to enjoy a yummy Jersey Mike's dinner. I had to work, but she managed to stay up long enough to let me bathe her and put her to bed so he could get a break. Happy birthday, Bob!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Cheerios
Erin tried Cheerios for the first time at lunch today. Here is the final score:
Eaten: 0
Spit out: 1
Left on tray: 5
Bella ate: 2
I think Bella is starting to see potential benefits in having Erin around!
Eaten: 0
Spit out: 1
Left on tray: 5
Bella ate: 2
I think Bella is starting to see potential benefits in having Erin around!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Sitting Pretty
Look who can sit up on her own!
By the way, we went to JC Penney's on Tuesday to get her pictures taken. They aren't great, but at least she's not pouting or crying in all of them. We're going to take it. She may be built like a model, but she sure doesn't act like one! That's about all that's new with us. We are excited about going to Concord this weekend for Aunt Maria's shower!
By the way, we went to JC Penney's on Tuesday to get her pictures taken. They aren't great, but at least she's not pouting or crying in all of them. We're going to take it. She may be built like a model, but she sure doesn't act like one! That's about all that's new with us. We are excited about going to Concord this weekend for Aunt Maria's shower!
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