Peek A Boo

For months now we have played peek-a-boo with Francesca. She has always loved it and it's a go to game to play with her and get a smile. She started hiding her face around 6 months and then popping up. She loves doing this with Dom.
While his dad was visiting we were out at a restaurant and she took a napkin and played with Dom across the table. Here is the video of me capturing it from the side.

Sleep Training

Since she was born I've heard "You have to teach your baby how to fall asleep. Make sure you lay them down awake so they can learn to put themselves to sleep." When you hear this you don't really realize that a baby has to 'learn' how to fall asleep. I guess I always took for granted how to close my eyes and go to sleep. Well, she had kinda fallen asleep on her own when we laid her down a couple of times so I figured we were ok. She seemed to sleep pretty well for an 8 month old. Then Val decided that she needed to train Toby to sleep. It sounded awlful, but was really working for them. I examined Francesca's sleeping habits and decided that they weren't too bad and she would be fine. Then I started noticing that at night she would eat and not fall asleep. We were then allowing her to play around till she was moody and then Dom or I would hold her, read to her and sing and eventually she would fall asleep. Most nights it wasn't till about 10:00 or 10:30 that she would go to sleep.

So we realized that she didn't have a great sleeping habit and we should start helping her put her self to sleep. Last night (7/25) was our first try at it. We would bathe her, read to her, cuddle and then put her in her crib. We knew she was tired so hopefully this would go smoothly. We we were just kidding ourselves. After laying her down she would immediately stand up and start crying. Sometimes she would take it to the next level. We waited 3 mins and then went back in. I did pick her up and tried to soothe her. We then went in every 5 mins or so, comforted her, laid her on her back and then walked out. After 45 mins I went in and when I laid her down I got close to her and comforted her. She almost immediately went to sleep. YEA! success! One night down. She woke up around 2ish but was able to go back to sleep before waking up around 5 to eat.

Today I tried to do the same for nap time. She was tired, but not willing to sleep. I tried for 30mins and then gave in and let her come out to play. She eventually went to sleep while eating. Tonight Dom was on call so the duty was mine. I gave her extra time in the bath, but knew she was somewhat sleepy. I read to her, fed her and read one last book. She was very tired so I was hoping it would go better. As soon as I had her hovering over her bed she started crying. She has learned in 2 days what is going to happen. She was upset at first but after only 30mins she was asleep. The last time I went in she had sat down on her own and was not standing up to meet me. So hopefully she will eventually learn to sit, lay down and then fall asleep all by herself. We will take it one night a time. I know we will all be thankful when she has learned to fall asleep.

The next night was even better. She cried for about 15 mins and the second time we went in and laid her down she fell asleep. Then the two nights after that she only fussed for 3-5 mins.

SUCCESS!!!! We've been doing this for close to a week and she has really responded well to her bedtime routine. While we are reading to her she has really calmed down and I think is starting to associate all of these activities with sleep. Now when we lay her down we don't have to go back in and calm her down. Lets hope she keeps this up.

Now we will work on her waking up during the night and learning to fall back to sleep then and naps during the day.

Seventh Heaven

WOW!!! What a busy month we've had. We started it off with a quick trip to FL to celebrate Mom & Dad's 30th anniversary. Francesca got to go swimming in the ocean and pool and play in the sand with Toby.

She went to the Doctor for her 6th month check up and everything looks good. Her head jumped up to the 95th percentile, she weighted a little over 15.5 which puts her into the 25th percentile of weight. So she is carrying most of that weight in her big ol' head, we are hoping she grows into it like Dom and I did.

She definately is crawling now. We had to baby proof the house b/c she is always on the move now. She hasn't slowed down since she started moving. Now she has learned to pull her self up on almost anything. She would always try to stand up on the rocking chair in the living room. It took 3-5 days of practice and finally she has learned to mster standing up on a moving object.

She greets us in the morning or after a nap by standing up in her crib, she pulls her self up on things and is just starting to realize she can sit down when she wants to go somewhere else. There for a while she would just cry after standing in one spot

.

Dom's Mom came to stay and help me for a week. Dom got a few days off after fininshing his Intern year. We all went to the zoo where Francesca noticed the Sea Lions, Giraffe, Zebra, Baboons, & elephants. Everything else she just noticed the waterfall in the exhibit.

We then headed towards Tennessee for a family reunion weekend at my aunt's house. On the way we stopped at a State Park, Lake James, in the mountains and played at the lake. We first had a picnic and then headed to the swimming area. Francesca loved to crawl along the shore in the water and play/eat the sand. Once in TN we went to the city pool Crystal took her down the slide. Francesca walked in her floaty all around the baby pool. We put her in her crab floaty and she could touch the bottom. This allowed her to walk through the water. She loved the freedom and the ablity to go anywhere. She even put up with her Nana torpedoing her underwater... several times. She is getting closer and closer to swimming. Missy hosted a great weekend. All of the Bass family was there to hang out and spend some a great weekend together. We all crammed into Missy's new house, I think around 20 people slept there on Sat. night. She got to visit with a ton of family and hardly touched the ground as there were always some hands waiting to hold her. The City of Alcoa has a great celebration for the fourth and sets off some great fireworks. Luckily we can see them all from Missy's yard. She liked the fireworks, but the finale did scare her a little bit. So all in all it was a great month. Now Dom gets to start year number two.

3 Months and Counting

We've been so blessed with such a great baby. After just 3 months she has made her nightly routine and goes to bed around 9-10 every night. She has even slept for 7-8 hours a couple of nights. When we read to her she will sit there and listen to the book and look at the pictures. She smiles at us all the time and is now smiling at strangers. She also babbles on and on every night.

We got a freak snow one night. I got a call from a friend who told me to look outside. When we did it was snowing like crazy. Within a few minutes our back porch went from snow melting on contact to being completly covered. You couldn't see any of the road out front, it was one big blanket of snow. So the following morning I dressed her in the snow suit Mom got her and out we went. At first I laid her on a waterproof mat in the snow. Then I was over that and put her directly in it. She made her first snow angel. It was so little and so cute. She enjoyed being outside and the snow didn't really bother her. We then went and snapped a few pictures of her on Dom's bench and then her out in the woods. They are really my favorite pictures of her so far.

Valentines Day-probably one of my favorite holidays. I think I only like it b/c the colors are red and pinks. There is no other reason, but I like to decorate for it b/c I can get a way with putting more pink in the house. I tried to fix a fun meal, so we had cornish hens with a wild rice stuffing. It was quite nice, but cornish hen is a fancy way of saying chicken. It tasted just like a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. It was also a lot of food. Dom and I split one. Francesca sat with us at dinner and got to spend some quality time with the 'rents.
We took an emergency trip to FL. Our townhouse still hasn't sold and I wanted to go and paint it a more neutral color downstairs. I found a super cheap flight and knew Dom would be working. Mom and Dad were so great. We all went down to Tampa and planned to spend the day painting. They had extra paint left over from the house they were remodelling and it was perfect. Our neighbor Mabel was nice enough to let me borrow her boncey seat, and some socks. It was a cold day and I forgot to pack Francesca a pair a of socks. Painting was slow. One of us had to entertain or feed Francesca while the other two painted. I'm so glad I go to go and visit our home. I really do love that house and know that Dom does too. I tried to get some pictures of her and the back yard for him. We put on the primer and then the first coat of paint. During all of this I was feeding her, visiting with Amanda and talking everything over with our Realtors. We took a break to eat some dinner at Ruth's Steakhouse with Keith and then headed home to finish the second coat and clean everything up. Somehow we got it all done and it looked really good. I was pretty sad to cover up the green, yellow and orange but was hoping this would help it sell faster. Luckily for us it was around Francesca's bed time by the time we left. So she slept most of the way home, but it was a long day for all of us. Her and Dad were pretty wiped out by the time we made it back to Daytona.
She also got her ears pierced. Dom didn't want to be there when I got it done. So I waited until one night when he was working and my friend Kiera and I headed to the mall. It nevered bothered me to get her ears pierced until we were walking around. Then I started having second thoughts about putting her through it. But I mustarded up the strength and headed into Claire's. She did cry. After the first one she was pretty upset. The second one wasn't hard because she was so tense from crying that she wasn't moving. Before I finished paying she was laughing and smiling and doesn't even know they are there. I think she cried more when she got her shots from the doctor. That night I was worried about moving them and touching them, but it didn't bother her at all. It was a great decision, she never bothered them and it was so easy to keep them clean. Every time I changed her diaper I would rotate them and put the medicine on them.

2 Month Update

It has been 2 months now and Francesca continues to amaze us everyday. She now weighs 11 pounds and is begining to get a nightly schedule and sleep around 5-6 hour stretches at night. She has become so much more alert and has plenty of happy awake time through out the day. She has also started to entertain herself and not need someone to hold her at all times.

She has really gained some great head control. You are not required to support her head all the time now. She also started lifting her head up when she is laying on her stomach. Speaking of stomach, she hates to be on her stomach. I try to be the good mom and give her 'tummy time' but that is crap. I leave her there for 30sec or so and once she starts screaming we flip that baby back.

Dom got 5 days off around New Years. We were party animals. We watched Ryan Seacrest in Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve Party in NYC. Then when the ball dropped we opened our bottle of Chapagnae from Costa Rica (that is another story all together. The hotel in Manuel Antonio brought us a complimentary bottle and Dom wouldn't let me drink it b/c we were trying to get pregnant. But I knew that I wasn't. I was so sad. But we brought it back to FL & then up to NC with us.)

After New Years Dom's Mom and Nana & Papa came to stay with us. We had a great visit and Dom and I went out for the first time. Then my Dad came up to get some work done at the house. Dad installed motion lights out back, added a glass door to our front door, and put dead bolts on all of our doors. He and Crystal watched Francesca while Dom and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary from when we started dating.

Toby & Val also stopped by for a few days. What a great time Val & I had together. It was great to sit around and take care of your baby, but have someone there with you to keep you company and be doing the same thing as you are. Francesca & Toby don't notice each other. But they sure are cute together. Toby was a solid brick compared to floppy Francesca. We also had our first snow of the season and the first of the babies lives. We watched it from inside and didn't get to take them out in it before it melted away.

Bath time has also become a favorite. She lays in her little tub and never fusses. Dom gives the baths around here. He scrubs her and makes sure all the dirt that she has picked up during the day is washed away(he really does SCRUB her.)

Her and I went to FL for a couple of days. It was a great trip and she did wonderful on the airplane. She also took her first swim in the hot tub at Mom & Dad's, which she loved. I can't wait to go back and spend more time with our families and friends.

I am ready to have another baby. Francesca is so good, how hard could it be to add another?

In the beginning

So its been almost 8 months and I've finally decided that I need to record Francesca's progress as she explores and learns about this crazy world of ours.

In the beginning there was darkness and water. Then the doctor said "It is time" and there was light and everyone agreed that this was good. And now we have our Francesca. -I like to think that it was God's master plan for me to have her on November 26th. Not a day that I picked but when it was time for her to come and visit us for the first time, a birthday that she will always share with her cousin Toby.

The Monday Blues:

It was past by due date and the doctor scheduled me for a check up bright and early Monday morning, 7:30 early. Sunday night had been an interesting one. I started having stronger contractions than I had had before, but nothing regular.

So off to the doctor I went- they wanted to have me get a sonogram to check the fluids around her, and make sure she still had enough room. And to do a non stress test to check her heart rate. During the sonogram I saw all kinds of hair on her head. I wasn't lucky enough to be in the room with the 3D sonogram, so it was pretty hard to make out too much, she was smushed in there pretty good. They estimated her size to be around 7lbs 4oz. I wasn't too happy that she was getting so big, I still had to deliver this thing. But everything looked great.

Then off to the room for the non stress test. They hooked me up to some machines that measure the baby's heart rate and my contractions. Things were pretty boring. Then the action began. I started having a pretty strong contraction and as it got stronger her heart rate started to drop. Once they saw this they came in and told me I was going to have to have the baby today and my next stop would be the hospital.

TODAY!?! Val was in Atlanta being induced as we spoke, Mom & Dad were with her. I felt great- not ready to go into labor, and I had a load of laundry (including Francesca's outfit to wear home from the hospital) in the washer. I made a list of things to do today, that I hadn't got done yet. I was hoping she would hold off until Friday and then she would be born on Dec 1 and all of us would have our birthday on the first of the month (mine is Sept 1 and Dom's is July 1.) Plus Dom was on his last night of call. So I took my papers and straight to the hospital I went. Once I got outside I paged Dom with our seceret 911 page. He thought I was kidding when he saw the page, but called to check in. I let him know he needed to go home, grab our bag and meet me in the hospital.

It was very sureal driving to the hospital to park in the parking garage and walk up to the 4th floor to have my baby. It's not how you picture it for 9 months. I assumed I would be in labor for a while at home and keep yelling at Dom to time my contractions and then we would jump in the car and they would wheeling me up to labor and delivary. But I drove myself and calmly walked through the parking garage, into the hospital and up to the labor and delivary floor, went to the nurse's station handed them my papers. I said "I am here to have my baby." And that is what I did.