My milkshake brings all the babies to the yard...

Can you believe I have only heard that milkshake song TWO TIMES, and then only because of going to iTunes and listening to a 30-second sample (twice) so I could tell what everyone is talking about? And still the earworm.

Hungriest Baby in the Universe yesterday. It was like throwing food down a bottomless well. I mean, we fed her solids at 4 and AGAIN at 6, and I'd nursed in the interim! I felt like I was being devoured from 1pm onwards, and all night. Have bruised nipples from the little barracuda. And it's not like she needs to grow any more! She's big! (Though not as big as G. the enormous baby who looks unfortunately like her father from our childbirth class - I ran into them at the park Saturday and she was 17 pounds 14 ounces at 4 months! On breastmilk alone! Then again, this is the baby that gained a pound and a half between being born and her first checkup at the pediatrician, two days later (most breastfed babies lose some the first week or so - and in general, for the first few months they gain an ounce a day. Not a pound a day.).)

Fed her homemade applesauce. Funniest faces yet. It is a little bit tart but not very much so - will try pears when I get a chance, as maybe milder. The first bite of applesauce made her cry, but she warmed up to it some. She did eat is, but in a "well, I trust you guys, but boy is this weird" sort of way.

Garden Update

Last week was cool (highs around 60) and very rainy, especially in the early part of the week. Tonight we have a hard freeze forecast. I like the delayed spring - it could easily be 80 degrees every day by now.

Daffodils are fully out. The ones I planted in the front look good; I mistakenly put the pansies behind them, and should move them forward. The new bulbs whose name I forget (blue star-flower) are a bit too subtle for the place they are, and suffered somewhat from the construction debris. The daffs by the butterfly bush are too regularly planted but I suppose they'll irregular up over the years. Allium several inches tall in the back bed, and sweet william greening up. Tips of the orange lily appearing. Took digital photos of the side yeard so I know where I need more bulbs, and where the existing ones are in old unblooming clumps so I can move them. Iris looking okay but I don't expect many blooms this year.

The peas and spinach are sprouty and I put in branches to support the peas. Seem to have survived the flood in place okay. New chives coming up, oregano is flourishing, pulled out the dead basil. May have killed the mint. Rosemary and sage looking scruffy.

Dogwood not at all bloomy; cherry trees bloomy, as is the spring camellia in the front yard. Hope the frost doens't affect the cherries too much.

Sleep update

Casper has been sleeping in her crib for 2 weeks now. It was pushed up against the bed so I could lean over the nurse her in the night, but now we've put the rail up for safety (she wiggles too much) and I scoop her out to feed her.

So, we've made progress in some areas. I sleep with earplugs in and am not awakened by random snorts, and since she is in the crib I am not thwacked by a leg in the night. mr. flea loves having no baby between him and me for sleeping and cuddles.

The late part of the night goes off pretty well. She always nurses between 5 and 5:30 and then sleeps for another hour plus. Usually she nurses at 2ish before that. We are getting 3-hour stretches more than we had been, and haven't had an every-hour marathon since we put her in the crib. Right now it's the early part of the night that's tough. She's been sleepy early and will often fall alseep by 7:30 only to wake up at 8 or 8:30 and not want to nurse or fall alseep in bed by herself (which she had been doing fine). I am at wit's end by this point in the evening so mr. flea holds her until she sleeps, but I DO NOT want to get into another bad habit with this! I find I do more nursing before midnight, and less after. This despite stuffing her with food at dinner time and unlimited regular nursing between 4:30 and bedtime.

She still cries out in her sleep and then settles, making enough noise to wake me. When she cries wanting to nurse she can be pacified for half an hour, but then will cry steadily. Very tiring for me as I wake up twice instead of once, but the idea is to lengthen the interval and discourage night feeding.

In the past two weeks napping has completely settled down and is shockingly regular. She naps at 9 for 1.5 hours and at 1 for 2 hours. Almost like clockwork, with hardly any effort on our part to make her do so. It's such a luxury on the weekends to know that we have 2 hours to do whatever we want around the house. It's so precious I can completely understand parents who schedule life around the sacred naps. If she misses or has to delay a nap she is okay still, but I can see the attachment to schedule growing.