The Drive

I'm sure every parent has to do this at some point. It's all part of the initiation, right? So, last night was our first time to have to take a drive to get Jenna to sleep. What happened to my great sleeper? The day went like this:

Jenna - 6am up and back to sleep until 9:30ish. Fussy at lunch time, fell asleep on the way home from lunch, woke up after only 10 minutes. At 2:30, I thought our normal routine was going to work: eat, cuddle, find thumb, sleep. It didn't. Cuddling produced ugly crying. She couldn't seem to find her thumb or relax. Pacifier didn't work either. The pattern continued throughout the afternoon. Finally, I just let it go thinking she'd sleep well at bedtime. The height of frustration began around 9pm when she should be going to bed for the night. Nothing is working, but we kept trying. 3 times, sleep came, only to be met with a bright-eyed smiley Jenna once placed in bed. (I had to smile and laugh at her all 3 times, how could I resist?) You could tell she was so tired, but wouldn't sleep. 10:20 we tried the swing - more sleepy bright eyes. 10:58 we hit the road. 11:03 sleep! Mommy and Daddy are exhausted. She did sleep all night.

I always believed this before, but am now a firm believer that a good nap is necessary for kids to get to sleep at night. Today is going much better. She's having a good nap now. I'm hoping it was just a one day problem. Maybe she forgot how to soothe herself or maybe turning 3 months old is tough. Or, maybe it was just our turn to take the drive.

13 weeks and 3 months

(Onesie from Mima, shorts from Aunt Heather and clan)

(Outfit from Grandma)

Jenna was 13 weeks old as of yesterday and 3 months old as of today. We've had such a busy week! Jenna experienced her first (0f many I hope) opening chapel with the parade of flags (Kansas ended up right in front of where we were sitting) and Daddy conducting March Grandioso. We met Mollie and Mattie there and had a great time!

Friends for Life

I am so blessed to have a great group of girlfriends from college. I've been friends with them from 10 - 13 years depending on when we met. There are 6 of us, five are pictured in the "Girls" post. The 6th is Mollie (see below). 10 years ago, I don't think either one of us would imagine that we'd be living in the same town, let alone living in the same town with our new families (our babies are 12 days apart).

Jenna and Mattie met for the first time Friday. It's hard to tell that they are 12 days apart. Which one do you think was a little over 7lbs at birth and which was almost 9lbs? One thing you can definitely tell is which baby goes with which Mommy!
I hope that these girls find the kind of friends that I have found. Who knows, maybe they'll find that in each other and be friends for life. I hope so.

I have to add two more cute pictures of Jenna. She can hold a toy for a little while, now. She doesn't grab for the toy, but if you attach her hand to it, she'll hold it for a few seconds.
In this one, I think she's saying, "What's on my head?"

12 weeks

12 weeks (another cute outfit from Grandma). Still sleeping through the night. Love that thumb! She is busy, smiley, and so chatty. She wakes up so happy everyday. Most mornings I wake up to her talking, not crying. Don't we all wish that we could be so excited for a new morning!

She had a great time with Uncle Matt last weekend. She really likes to be around new people. We've been going to a lot of the band camp social things and she really likes to see what's happening.

Here's a rare capturing of her heart-melting smile. Even though she smiles a lot, it's amazing how hard it is to capture it in a picture.

11 weeks

11 weeks old! (There aren't enough "E's" in my two sets of blocks to spell "eleven" and "weeks" so we're going with numbers now).

What a cutie! She slept through the night again Tuesday night and last night she slept from 10:00 to around 4: 15, and then went back to sleep until 8:45. Sleep is so nice. Yea for the thumb! We'll figure out how to get her off of it later.

Tonight starts the marching band madness. There's a dinner with the student leaders tonight, tomorrow starts their leadership training (all day Fri and Sat), and band camp starts Sunday evening. Even though it is crazy, I must say that I love marching band season. It's exciting and it makes it really seem like fall (even though the temperatures don't correspond to what I think of as fall).

The right thumb wins!

(She's got her thumb and check out the cute "butt"erfly on her bottom! Thanks Aunt Katie!)

After starting with the left and trying out the right, the right thumb is the thumb of choice. And she's gotten quite good at finding it on her own! This is a tremendous help at night. We used to get up several times to help her find the pacifier after she spit it out. Now, she gets her thumb and soothes herself. Which leads to the next great accomplishment:

JENNA SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT LAST NIGHT!!!

She went to sleep around 11pm and didn't get up until around 8:15 this morning. Wow, what a difference uninterrupted sleep makes. I realize that tonight she may go back to waking up once or twice, but at least we know she can sleep through the night and that she may be on her way toward more consistency.

Perfect 10

Here is our 10-week-old. She just gets cuter every day! She is still working on teaching herself to suck her thumb. She started out with the left and now she tries both sides; usually the side she's laying on.

Last weekend we had a nice visit from Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Katie. Jenna got quite spoiled and it was great to have the extra help!

I just finished reading Harry Potter 7 in 7 days. Our library checks out new books for only 7 days and then you can't recheck because of high demand. So, my goal was to finish the book in one check out so I wouldn't have to request it again and wait for the ending. Most of you may think it's no big accomplishment, and normally I probably would've finished in a couple days, but with an infant, things are just a little different. I can't believe I finished in 7 days! Now I need to catch up on my naps! I must say, I am pleased with how the series ended and sad that there will be no more installments.

Girls

Our road trip was great, we have such a good, sweet girl! It is such a blessing to be with these great friends. No matter how long it has been we can always pick up like we were together yesterday. Thanks to Jenni for hosting. Our girl is nine weeks old now and has spent today learning to find her thumb. Check out her sweet smile!