New Experiences

Four nights ago, Mike and I decided it was time to put Farrah in her crib. It's not that I don't completely love to cuddle and sleep with her, it's just that I need to be able to get some sleep. For several nights, I have been up at all hours of the night because she wants to talk my ear off. She has inherrited the talky gene from me, her Grandma, and her Great Grandma. I apologize in advance to anyone who thinks they would like to carry a conversation with her someday with hopes that you will get two words in. Good luck with that. In any case, as the circles under my eyes began to get darker and my appearance along with my walk became more like that from a scene of The Living Dead, we knew it was time. I gave her a bath, turned down the volume on the TV, turned off most of the lights in the house, fed her, and spent the rest of the time whispering with Mike. The house was shut down. I put her in her crib and turned on the monitor. I kept her door cracked as well as ours so I could have a back up method to hear her. Can you believe that it worked?!! She fell asleep for about two hours, wanted to eat, I fed her, put her back, and she slept for another 5 hours! I GOT TO SLEEP!!! This small achivement actually made me love her even more. Then there were the next two nights. She felt like staying up. All...night...long. So tired. However, one of the nights was our fault. I didn't give her a bath and we took her down stairs with us at 10:00 PM to watch a two hour long movie. She slept through it and then when it was time to go to bed she didn't want to. Don't shake your finger at me, I know we screwed that one up. Last night we went through the same routine as the first time. Much better. Slowly but surely, Mike and I are going to try to get to bed earlier so she can get to bed earlier. That way when I have to start going back to work, I won't feel like slitting my wrists at the thought of getting up at 7:30 rather than noon.

Last night was an interesting experience with Farrah. I wanted to get together with my parents because my mom is going in for surgery today on her back (which should make a world of difference for her and we're all very excited). My parents wanted me to meet up with them for dinner a little before 6. I was getting ready to leave at 5:15 when I noticed that Mike had the base to the car seat. I thought I was going to kill him. He was at the gym and by the time he'd stop what he was doing, grab his stuff, and get here, it would be way too late for me to leave. So, he and I agreed that it was only two miles away and that I could tie her seat up with the seat belt and drive very carefully to the gym to get the base. It was a Brittany Spears moment. Don't judge me. We made it there safely and I got the base out of the car. Mind you, the whole 2 mile drive was noisy from Farrah screaming and crying the whole time. Aghh. She settled down and we headed for the restaurant. We got there and met up with my parents and Grandma. We ordered our meal and just talked. As soon as my meal arrived, out came an awful squeal from my daughter. I quickly checked her straps in her car seat to make sure nothing was pinching her. She was crying her hard cry so I unstrapped her and held her while trying to eat at the same time. That didn't work. My mom told me to hand her to her, then my dad said he'd hold her, followed by my grandma. I held her a little while longer and then finally handed her over to my mom so I could get a couple of bites of my dinner. She was passed around to everyone and then we figured no one would be able to make her stop until I fed her dinner. Great. I grabbed her and took her to the ladies room for a quick change and brought her back to the table. She stopped crying for the whole time that I changed her so I was excited thinking that I wouldn't have to pull a boob out in public. As soon as we sat down, the screaming started again. Mind you, Farrah is a LOUD child. Even the waitress had to come over and ask how old she was because she had never heard a newborn have such a loud cry her whole life. Her vocal chords aren't even fully developed yet, so I am scared to think what we have waiting for us down the road. Luckily, the restaurant was pretty empty so I was able to grab the booth behind my family and whip it out. This seemed to be exactly what she wanted. Eventually, I figured I was more covered than I thought so I walked with her still attached to my family's table and seriously multi-tasked. I sat there feeding Farrah, hiding myself, eating my dinner, and readjusting myself under my blanket whenever Farrah got unattached. My parents and grandma got a kick out of watching me do this. They wished they'd had a camera because I looked so ridiculous. Oh well, it worked! Boy, when that kid gets hungry she let's you know immediately.

After that fun time, Farrah and I took off to Babies R Us for some much needed items. I bought an extra car seat base for Mike's car, a mobile, a tummy play mat, a slumber bear (wonderful little item to put her to sleep with), and an adorable outfit for her next set of pictures. I can hardly wait until they're done. She's going to look amazing. She already does.