I can't believe how big Makena is getting. We can tell she is changing and growing up right before our eyes. It's amazing. I've watched many kids, but I've never had one every single day to really see how much she learns each day! It's so fun to see her little brain working and figuring out the exciting world around her. Her personality is becoming clearer, she loves so many things. She's interested in everything and has a great attention span! She loves to work at something until she figures it out. But, she doesn't get upset if she can't. She just directs her attention elsewhere. I often catch her smiling at her toys while she plays by herself. It's so sweet!
She is such a delight, and pretty easy going. She will sit contently with you and just cuddle or smile at your face. She can "play" on her own for a long time. She's pretty darn close to perfection, but we're struggling to get her to sleep on her own. Naps only happen if it's quiet and she's nursed to sleep or rocked, and she won't stay asleep unless we hold her the whole time. We love it! Holding a sleeping baby is so precious. But it's exhausting too. I'd love to put her down for a nap and walk away and have an hour or 2 to do something. I feel like since I get to be a stay at home mom I should relish every single second with her, and the thought of missing out on holding her for even an hour while she sleeps makes me sad. I do know that eventually we'll need to get her to learn how to fall and stay sleep on her own. It's just SO hard.
I tried letting her cry it out the other day. She had been falling asleep as I nursed her, so I put her in the co-sleeper and walked out of the room. She started crying the second I walked away. I waited 5 minutes (aka, an ETERNITY) and went back in. I put the pacifier back in her mouth and patted her tummy. She grabbed onto my hand and tried to pull me closer. I walked out again and she screamed. I repeated that again (crying while watching her cry on the monitor) and then the 3rd time went in after 10 minutes of hell, and she was a wreck. Red faced, tears in a puddle under her head, shaking and scared and lonely. I picked her up, apologized profusely, and she promptly fell asleep in my arms hanging on to me for dear life. So the crying method isn't going to work for us. Maybe down the road when she's older, but I'd really rather find another approach that works.
When I'm home it's fine to have her nap in my lap, but when I take her to work with me she pretty much doesn't sleep. She'll nap briefly but wakes up because there is so much excitement going on. If I could get her to sleep upstairs in Colin's crib it would be better for all of us! So we decided to take a step back and get her on a schedule, but first we have to know what her natural patterns of sleep are. So I've been keeping track all week. And after 4 days there is no pattern. Everything I read about sleep and babies promises that getting them to sleep better will make a happier baby. But she's already happy! One book said that babies who aren't well rested won't smile and don't engage in babbling conversations. But Makena is super smiley and loves to babble and talk to us! I think mybe she's just so alert and aware of her surroundings that it's hard to close her eyes. Some days I'm not sure how she survives on so little sleep, but at the same time she's still in a great mood. Her Dr. says that basically she's doing great at her only job- keeping us on our toes.
But I could go on forever about sleep and lack of sleep. Back to things Makena loves...
Who doesn't love a good snuggle!?
She loves to grab. She can grab things so well now, if I have anything in my hand she wants it. And the second she gets something in her hands it goes into her mouth. She loves to chew (well, gum) on her fingers. She will spit out her pacifier and stick her fingers in her mouth. She leans forward constantly to bring her mouth closer to whatever she sees. She wakes up in the morning and grabs at my face. She tries to grab Pam's glasses. She grabs our hair. She even grabs the cord to the camera and sucks on it when I try to take her photo!
She loves playing in her jumper. Best $40 I ever spent. She LOVES LOVES LOVES jumping. She'll be totally content for up to an hour jumping away and exploring all the toys around her. We start to feel guilty after a while because sometimes we lose track of how long she's been in there. But at the same time, if she's happy, it's okay right?? At first she could only kinda spin the gecko spinner, but now she spins it fast and also can spin the sun. I think her favorite part is the plastic bug with fabric wings because she can actually pull it up to her mouth and slobber all over it. She also grabs at the animals, tries to grab the lights that blink on and off, and can reach up and bat at the hanging frog and parrot.
She loves getting her diaper changed. We usually change her in the changing table portion of the Pack n Play, and she will lay in there happily for a while. She's always loved that spot. She loves getting her clothes and diaper taken off. She loves naked time! She doesn't cry or fuss when getting clothes put on, except of course if the neck part takes to long getting pulled over her face. She loves the diaper changing song that Pam made up and I chime in to sing backup. "Cleeeean butt, cleeeeean butt, Makena has a cleeeean butt! Cleeeean butt OH, cleeeeeeean butt, Makena has a cleeeeean butt! A what? My baby girl has a cleeeean butt! A who? Makena has a cleeeean butt!" Or something like that. Those are basically the words but I think the song kinda changes a bit each time. lol.She loves standing, and if you hold her up she will stand for a very long time. Her legs don't buckle and she doesn't wobble.
She also loves sitting up, and she sits so well on your lap.
Or she'll sit propped up on a chair or the couch. She can sit for a while and pay attention to whatever is going on. After a while she'll start to topple to the side. In her carseat she tries so hard to sit up and will strain her neck to hold it up but she can't move much since she's buckled in so snug.She loves watching me eat. She'll stare at my fork and follow it from my plate to my mouth as I take a bite. Some people say that when a baby shows interest in food it's time to feed them solids, but we're holding off a little while longer for a variety of reasons. She likes to grab at my cup of water and has spilled 2 nice full cups of cold water on both of us. So far just 2, I'm sure there will be lots more!!
She loves taking baths, and I couldn't be happier! When I was pregnant the only time I spoke to her out loud was when we were in the bathtub. (I spoke to her often in my mind, and sometimes when Pam would talk to my belly sometimes I'd say something, but almost every time I took a bath I spoke to her. I'd ask her to grow strong and healthy and tell her that I was going to try to have her enter the outside world into a warm bath. Didn't get the water birth I hoped for, but I still got a baby that loves the water!)
She loves being startled. Anything that makes her jump in turn makes her laugh. "BOO!" giggle giggle! "Ahhhh, ahhhh, ahhhh-CHOO!" giggle giggle! I used to tell Pam to stop scaring her but she insisted that she liked it, and she's right. She really loves it!
She loves having her hands held when she's sleepy. She'll close her eyes and reach her hands all over searching for a finger to grasp onto. We hold onto her hands a lot when she's in the carseat crying and we have no other way to comfort her. One of our first car rides she was crying the most she ever had and I felt so helpless and she held onto my finger and calmed down for the rest of the ride home. I've been trying to offer her the lovey bunny to hold onto, but she still prefers to hold a nice warm finger. Then we cover her hand with our hand and hold her arm still from flailing around. Sometimes that's enough to help her drift into sleep. It's adorable.
She loves watching TV. I'm torn about it. One day (right around when she turned 3 months old) she just seemed to notice the television all of a sudden, and the next day she couldn't take her eyes off it. If she's crying and she sees the TV on she'll stop crying to watch. But more than just the TV, she loves Sesame Street. And much to my dismay I put it on for her to watch. Yes, I feel like she's too young to watch TV. No, I'm not proud of it. But it gives me a break and I feel like she isn't just a total zombie, she actually laughs and talks to it and interacts the same way as if I were talking to her or showing her something interesting. She loves the musical numbers. But more than Sesame Street, she LOVES Elmo. When Elmo's World comes on she lights up. She'll kick her feet and coo and shriek in excitement. She'll laugh when he laughs. It's really adorable. Pam hates Elmo, and I'm not a fan either, but I can see why he's such a favorite for kids. That high squeaky voice just makes her smile. I asked her Dr if he thinks it's ok for her to watch TV and his opinion is that she's too young for it to be detrimental. Surely there are better things for her than watching TV. I know that. But I think if it's a tool in my kit of things to do and used in rotation with all the other more enriching activities, well, I don't think it's too terrible. I've read studies that suggest otherwise, and I know zero screen time is suggested for babies. I guess I weigh in the fact that if I need 30 minutes to make a meal in the kitchen or take a shower or go online to use two hands to type or whatever, that those 30 minutes aren't going to make me a bad mom. And if it's an hour one day that's okay too. And if it's a really hard day and more than an hour, well, I'm okay with that. Obviously as she grows and can DO more, I'll feel less of a need to entertain her with the TV. Enough about that!
She loves when we sing to her, and so far I think her favorite is "Down by the Bay." Or maybe it's just because I shake my head funny when singing "baaaaaaaaaaaaay!"
She loves watching Donte walk by her. And she loves touching him. She reaches out her hand and will call out to him sometimes. At least that's what I think she's doing. lol. We'll call him over to sit with us and let her "pet" him, but she usually just grabs and yanks his fur. He doesn't seem to mind too much. He likes the attention but after a while he jumps away. She gets lots of cat hair in her hands and we have to make sure to rinse them off before they go into her mouth!
She LOVES her Gloworm. It was a baby shower gift from my Grannybug, who I named after a Gloworm I had as a kid. If Makena is crying we can press the tummy of the Gloworm and she'll stare at it and smile as it's face is lit up and it plays music. Unfortunately, it only plays short songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and then the music stops and the face light turns off and Makena will look around and start to fuss if she wasn't done looking at it yet. So we spend a lot of time pressing it on over and over. I've memorized the order in which the songs play. I'd love to rig it up to play much longer!!
She loves when you blow raspberries on her tummy (or cheeks or neck or feet...) and it almost always gets a giggle. She recently learned to mimic the blowing of her lips to make the sound. If you do it to her and she sees your mouth she'll often do it back. Lots of spit bubbles and drool!
She loves the mobile over her crib. If she's really crying usually that calms her down, and if she's in a good mood she loves to lay in her crib and talk to the animals circling over head. Sometimes I just hold her eye level with the mobile and she smiles so big at it. She kicks her feet and starts to act fussy until I turn the knob. I think she knows that clicking sound means the fun is about to start! I love that she loves the song Imagine!
She loves grabbing her feet. Once she's laying on her back she reaches for her feet and pulls them up. This started right around when she turned 4 months.
She loves her Baby Einstein Radio toy. My mom bought it for her and it's a total hit. It plays nice longish tunes and the lights flash and she loves to watch it. We usually have it sticking up on the side of the changing table and when we lay her down to change she turns her head and looks at it expectantly. We make sure to take it with us for car rides because sometimes it's the only thing that will stop her from crying in the car!
And I love her! She is happy and plays on her own. She can entertain herself for a little while as long as she has something in her hands. She is so much fun, and can do so much already!
