My Tummy Hurts

Our phone and internet kept going out after we thought the problem was fixed, hence slow updates. The stomach problem over the weekend is still lingering around, so I've been particularly tired. Wil is knee-deep in books getting ready for the finals. Both boys have been dealing with stomach issues of their owns and reduced time at the park because of the crazy weather and their father's schooling. The only one that is still the happiest clam on the block is our daughter. Today Wil and I sat on the couch and marveled at how lucky we were to have such a happy and easy going baby. We are still waking up a lot at night but it's SLOWLY getting better as I learn to pick up on her cues through out the day. And since rolling over last week, Chase hasn't been able to duplicate the result, although she's very very close. I get so excited for tummy time because I really get to see my baby's brain at work. She would try for a while, rest after a couple of minutes of hard work (she would kick and roll but then get stopped by her arm), think about what to do next, and then try again. The girl is not a quitter, that's for sure. It's been a couple of slow weeks in our house and I don't have much else to report. But that can very well change very quickly with Wil's job. We don't have any solid details yet, so you'll just have to come back for that :). On to pictures for now.

Resting and contemplating her next move.


Momma put me in my first separates (and last for a while) for my 3-month-old picture. I'm way too cool to smile for the camera now.
Chase has discovered her hands in a big way a couple of weeks ago. It's been really hard trying to take her picture without her hands either in her mouth or face.
I like my mobile.
I think I took about 30 pictures of her just waking up from a nap today with varying degree of success (I did say it's been hard to photograph her?). Mom, you can never say I don't post enough pics of your grandbaby.




And my personal favorite

We're Back!

Just when I resigned myself to the fact that we were going to have to learn Morse code to communicate with the outside world (or get my butt to the library everyday), the phone rang just after dinner time. Wil and I were so excited and kept screaming "it's working!!!" to each other we nearly missed the call. Living without phone or internet for 5 days was that bad mainly because I had an infant, who wanted to have a leisurely meal every two hours, so the computer was really my only way of not being completely out of touch with everything else that was going on. The first couple of days were hard, but relief came in a strange form of severe food poisoning. I was so freaking sick I couldn't think about missing my peeps' blog updates or the latest gossip on PopSugar. Two days of throwing up and I'm nearly back in my pre-pregnancy pants! See, I get that lemon-lemonade thing. I have a lot of catching up to do, Internet, so pictures of my beautiful children will have to wait. Good night!

We're Partying Like It's 1899

No phone, no internet. One of many construction crews around our house accidentally damaged some kind of communication thingy that connected me to the outside world. And it's going to take A WHILE to fix it, or so I was told. Gotta love the German working hours. We're all alive and well, MOM. If you need to get a hold of us, try Wil's cell phone, which doesn't always work, because, you know, it operates on German time as well. And if you really NEED to get a hold of us, try snail mail. It might reach us before the line gets repaired. There are times that I miss the States, then there's time like this that I MISSSSS the States.

Have Passport, Will Travel!

We got Chase's passport today! This might not be such a big deal if we were stateside, but the recent waiting period had us really worried about not having it ready our trip to Thailand. It actually only took 6 weeks for us, which is a blessing considering many of our friends with babies older than ours are still waiting for theirs. Now if we can get Wil's, too...

In other quick news, my baby girl rolled over yesterday! I think my squeal startled her more than the actual accomplishment. I'm so proud of her! Anyway, should get some sleep while the baby is down. Good night!

A Converation in the Car

Me: I just saw a picture of me when I was pregnant. Dude, I was big from my forehead down to my toes!
Wil: Yeah, you were a plumper.
Me: You said I was all belly. Why didn't you tell me I was fat?
Wil: Are you crazy? I value my life.

I knew there was a reason why I didn't take a lot of pictures when I was pregnant, except for the belly ones. And I just realized that I never posted the last belly pic from the day before giving birth. I suggest you don't look at this while eating, unless, of course, you need a motivation to go on a diet.

10 Weeks
39 Weeks

Bring on the stretch marks.

That Stalker Baby

Needless to say, we are holding off on traveling until both momma and baby are back on some kind of normal routine. But you didn't think I was going to leave you hanging without some cute pictures of the kid, did you?

Chase LOVES this quilt Mrs. Richardson (Carol's mom) got her. I think she actually enjoys tummy time now because of it.
Sometimes she forgets how big Paddy really is.

Wil sat the baby in front of the mirror yesterday. I think he had much more fun than she did.

IT FEELS LIKE DEATH!

I've read that when a baby is learning a new skill, like holding her head up or rolling over, her sleep routine would get all out of whack because both her little brain and body are trying really hard to master the skill. Well, in the past couple of weeks, Chase has completely mastered holding her head up, both while being held upright and laying down on her tummy, and is now on the verge of rolling over from her tummy to back, which makes diaper changing that much more challenging. And then there's the 12th week growth spurt. I'm not sure which of these are responsible for my not getting any sleep. For the past couple of weeks, she's gone from sleeping 3-5 hours between nursing to almost EVERY HOUR. We've completely rolled back to the brand new baby days. Often I wake to find her crying because she started to roll over and got stuck. But sometimes she just wants to be cuddled and comfort nurse for a few minutes before falling back to sleep. She's sleeping so poorly at night that she's compensating by napping so much during the day and not eating as much as she should, which only feeds back into a bigger problem at night. I'm all for attachment parenting but right now I'm barely more than a pair of boobs with legs for her. And have I mentioned that I'M NOT GETTING ANY SLEEP? It makes the meaning of a "walking zombie" much more real. All the books seem to agree that sleep training before 4 months would be too early and quite frankly I haven't gotten the energy to even think about it. You moms out there, any suggestions? Please?