An update..finally!

It's been since the end of 2009. Where have I been?? Not one blog in 8 months?!! Whew. Guess I've been busy growing a little person. Being a mama is hard work! And, it takes all of my time, between wiping up poop, reading the same books over and over and keeping the house *somewhat* in order. I had no idea! But, I may be able to finally get back to this, since Charlotte is finally napping well. Most days, especially if she skips the morning nap, she goes down easy and hard (does that make sense?), and sleeps for a couple hours. YAY! I never thought this day would come. So, I suppose my first post in 9 months should be...an update?

Ok, here goes.

Sleep. This was the most difficult thing we were dealing with, and it's gotten much better. Charlotte will still fight it, and she still isn't big on a schedule, but she is getting plenty of sleep and we have - more or less - a routine. No, she isn't "sleeping through the night" (that seems to be the first and most important question anyone ever asks), but she sleeps with me, so I don't expect her to. Oh, and she's a baby. Believe it or not, they aren't *suppose* to be "independent", even in terms of sleep. Many studies have shown that babies don't mature in the sleep department for at least a year, a lot of times later. Some babies miraculously sleep through the night, on their own, very early on (even without crying it out - imagine!). Well, that's not extremely common, and that's not our baby. And that's ok. She gets the warmth and security of knowing mama is always right next to her, and I know exactly how she's doing, from whether or not she's cold to whether she's rolling around a lot (which she's doing a lot of lately). The latter can tell me a lot about how restful her sleep is, and whether or not she needs more comforting and napping during the day. I feel like I understand Charlotte so much better, sleeping next to her. Plus, if she is having a tough time, due to teething and such, I like knowing that I can comfort her in the night. If she were in a crib, I'm confident I would not be sleeping as well myself. Sure, lately it's been a challenge with teething and congestion, but I'm getting plenty of shuteye. The downside is papa still struggles with sleeping with us. Charlotte takes up a lot of space, and Mike isn't confident in moving her over, or touching her at all for fear of waking her, so he sleeps on the edge of the bed, most of the time getting kicked. Not so restful a night's sleep in that condition, so he sleeps elsewhere during the week, when he needs the rest most. Hopefully we can transition him back in, or her out, or me between the two beds, very soon!

Development. Lots of it! Charlotte is mobile, of course. Crawling everywhere, almost faster than we can catch her a lot of the time. Not so interested in walking since learning to crawl a few months ago. But, that's ok. I hear a parent should hope for this stage to last as long as possible! She stands, supported, all the time, but isn't confident in letting go. She is always at a window! The sills are at a perfect height for her. She is in love with books, and will sit and look at them for hours (accumulative, of course) during the day. Either that, or she's "reorganizing" them. Off the shelf and out of baskets, of course, but recently started putting books BACK in! This is a wonderful development in my mind, since I was wondering how long it would take to move beyond the stage where it was all about emptying a container - only to put the objects in her mouth. Now, she seems to be wondering how things work. Putting things in and on top of other things. I love watching this little person figure things out! What else...oh yes, words. Not many, if any. Pretty sure she says "kitty", but it's usually just the second syllable. She does make the sound when seeing one, though, so we're sure that's her first real word. Otherwise, she makes the "up" sound here and there, and dadada, and mamammam, but they aren't really related to anything in particular (especially the dad sounding one, since we call Michael papa). Still just unassociated word like sounds for the most part.

A TOOTH! We finally have one! Well, some of one. Yep, 11 months and her first tooth. And it's taking forever. I hope we get a few more quite quickly here, and the rest follow shortly. We're all tired of the teething! So far, no problems nursing, and she's learned quickly no to bite mama anymore.

Height and weight. Yeah, we have a biggun'. I'm interested to see where she falls in the charts at her 12 month wellness. I'm fairly certain she's at least 32" and weighs in around 30 lbs. That's bigger than a lot of two and three olds I've met!

EC and diapering. Not doing so well with EC-ing since she started getting busier. She's just so distracted, and rarely gives a cue that she needs to go. And, with her independence I'm not paying as close attention. But we do catch some, and she knows what the potty is for. We are still using disposable diapers at night, because Charlotte is such a heavy wetter then. Otherwise, still using the cloth, though now washing our own since we gave up the service a few months ago. Not such a big deal, unless we don't catch a poop. Then, rinsing out diapers and cleaning up is pretty gross. Ah, well. Hopefully we won't be in this stage for too long.

Otherwise, Charlotte is becoming quite the little person! She's so much fun. She has all kinds of silly in her, and she loves playing games and making us laugh. She figured out peek-a-boo a couple weeks ago (finally being involved in it: putting something over her face and waiting for us to find her, or pulling things off of our faces to find us), and just generally being silly. Like slurping up spaghetti. That one really got us.. She has also started cuddling. Melt, melt, melt. That's me. It's only been a couple weeks since she started resting her head on my chest, and I can't get enough of it! She also wraps those little arms around my neck, and I'm nearly in tears. I'm just so in love with this little person, it's hard to believe it's even possible. Goodness. It's all good, good, good. :)

We are also getting out to all kinds of "play dates" and that's been good for both of us. It's so nice to meet other parents, especially like-minded ones. It's nice to have that support system, and just being able to witness other children with healthy parents.

Well, nap time is up so that's my cue. I am posting new pictures to Mike's Picasa site today as well (haven't done so in 3 months), so head over there and check them out.

Gibberish

Cannot get enough of this, for some reason!

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Perhaps it's being a mama and listening to "gibberish" all day...

But, seriously, I love the music and, especially, the dancing.