Natalie’s Blog

Natalie had a blast at the Grounds for Sculpture this Sunday. Grandpa, Cora, and Aunt Kary came and we all enjoyed walking amongst the sculptures and listening to recorders, harpsichords, sackbuts, and viols at the Early Music Festival. We took about a million pictures of Natalie. Here are the highlights:

Judging by the amount of drool and hand-chewing that’s going on around here, there may be even more teeth coming soon. Numbers 7 & 8 made their appearance last week, as you can see in this photo:

This is the best picture we’ve got. It’s not so easy to get close to the teeth with the macro mode when Natalie is trying to bite/lick/kiss and grab the camera.

We’ve had a couple of incidents that give us hope that putting Natalie to sleep won’t always be so much of a project.

Earlier this week, I had nursed Natalie into a deep sleep in our new glider. We test her level of sleep by performing the “arm test.” The test is picking up her arm and dropping it. If it’s completely limp, she’s out. If she resists at all, she’s still in a light sleep. Apparently the test isn’t always fool-proof, because when I put her down, she woke up. But instead of nursing her or getting Chris to walk her, I decided to try rubbing her back. When I’ve tried this in the past, she usually revs up into full-blown crying and I end up nursing her. This time, Natalie got up and flopped herself face-first into the mattress a few times before settling on a comfortable position. I rubbed her back slowly for 5 minutes (I watched the clock) then sat next to her for a few minutes to make sure she was really asleep, and then gleefully walked out of the room!

Then a couple of nights later, she stopped nursing while she was still awake and fell asleep just rocking in the glider! I made myself rock another 10 minutes, did the arm test and then put her down—she didn’t move a muscle!

Baby steps…but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. One day, we’ll be able to read Natalie a bedtime story and leave her to fall asleep on her own. Hopefully by the time she’s 5. I like to keep my expectations low.

Natalie has added a couple of words to her vocabulary! Around the time Natalie was 9 months, she started saying “baby.” We have yet to get it on film, so you’ll have to take our word (ha!) for it. She has said “baby” looking at other babies, seeing pictures of babies in books, and looking at herself in the mirror.

Her next word is…”cat.” No surprise there, since Natalie loves the cats and we label them several times a day. She can’t quite make the “kuh” sound, so it sounds more like “Dah,” but she clearly means “cat” when she says it.

Natalie with one of her favorite buddies, who inspired her fourth word:

The snack trap has made traveling in the car with Natalie 1,000 times better than it ever was before. Natalie was never super happy in the car, and it got worse as soon as she started creeping. She wants to be on the move constantly, so being strapped into the car makes her really mad (if it’s not nap time).

We’ve tried toys, books, music, singing, bottles, and sippy cups, but none have kept Natalie as happy for as long in the car as the snack trap. I was hesitant to let Natalie eat in the car for fear that she would choke, but she’s proven herself very capable of self-feeding small items like cheerios and puffs. Sure, when I take her out of the car seat there are cheerios all over the place—the snack trap isn’t spill-proof, it merely slows the spillage down. A few spilled cheerios is well worth Natalie not crying during car trips longer than 5 minutes.

I feel only mildly guilty for setting her up for a lifetime of using food to fight boredom…

As you can see, Natalie is very possessive of her snack trap. It makes a good maraca, too!

Our visit to Terhune Orchards, October 20, 2007. Fun fun fun!!

Clara, Natalie’s first friend, just turned 1 yesterday, so I thought it would be fun to post pictures of the two girls through the year. They’ve both grown and changed so much!

Here’s their first picture together, December 21, 2006. Natalie was 2 weeks old, Clara 9 weeks old:

The girls with their Dad’s, January 21, 2007. Natalie was 6 weeks, Clara 15 weeks:

From when Chris and I baby-sat Clara for the first time (what an adventure that was!) on February 11, 2007. Clara, who was 4 months, was so much more aware of Natalie, who was about 2.5 months:

Swimming in Clara’s pool, May 25, 2007. Clara has just turned 7 months, Natalie was just shy of 6 months:

In sun hats at the Philadelphia Zoo, May 27, 2007:

This was taken on August 14, 2007, when Diane and Dave watched Natalie while Chris and I went on a date:

Same night, Diane holding both girls:

Recently, I started watching Clara 2 half-days a week while Diane teaches at Rutgers. Clara and Natalie are so cute together! When they wake up from their naps, they get so excited to see each other, even though they saw each other earlier in the day. Last week, I took them out in the car and they were a little fussy. Then they noticed that their buddy was in the car too and they laughed and giggled and tried to reach across the back seat to hold hands. Although I have no expectations that they will really learn to share for a while, it’s nice to have a context to introduce the concept.

Both of these pictures were taken October 8, 2007. Natalie is 10 months and Clara is a week shy of 1 year.
Playing outside together:

Reading together:

We hope Natalie and Clara will be friends for years to come!

Natalie’s first friend Clara turned 1 yesterday! It’s hard to believe a whole year has gone by since Clara was born. That means Natalie’s birthday is only seven weeks away…

Clara’s mom Diane and I have been friends since grad school—it’s wonderful to have a close friend nearby who is going through the adventures of motherhood at the same time. We talk, compare notes, share ideas and support each other all the time, which I feel very lucky for. Natalie and Clara get along great, too!

Here are some pictures of Clara’s first birthday party.

The birthday girl:

Proud parents Diane & Dave:

Friends Natalie and Jack scoping out the presents:

Clara making a wish:

Happy Birthday, sweet Clara! Thanks for a great party!

Getting Natalie to sleep is still a project. She’s not the type of baby we can put in the crib when it’s bedtime and expect her to go to sleep by herself. Most nights I nurse her to sleep, sometimes I nurse and then Chris walks her. Even when she falls asleep nursing, I cannot unlatch her. Sometimes she will sleep sort of half-nursing for a long time until she finally relaxes enough to open her mouth.

Not only does she need to be put to sleep, but she must be in a DEEP sleep before we can put her down. If she’s only in a light sleep, she will wake up and cry the second her body hits the mattress. She must be laid down ever so gently, then we have to practically lay on top of her for a few moments before slowly pulling our arms out from under her. This whole process makes transferring her into a crib impossible. So for a while she was sleeping on our mattress; just this week we put her mattress on the floor next to ours.

On a good night (rare) this whole process takes 10 minutes. On a really bad night, it can take up to an hour and a half. Usually it’s about half an hour. Every night I remind myself to be patient and not try to unlatch her or put her down before she’s ready. And every night I get impatient at some point, try to speed up the process by doing one of those things. This makes Natalie cry and take even longer to fall asleep. Then I chastise myself and think that if I were more patient, the whole affair would be easier and take less time. Finally, I vow that the next night, I won’t try to rush it.

I was getting upset and frustrated by all of this—about how long it took Natalie to go to sleep, but more so by how impatient I was. Chris, being more patient than I, was 100% more successful than me in terms of not putting her down until she was completely asleep, which didn’t make me feel any better. I did a lot of soul searching about why I couldn’t just enjoy some quiet time with Natalie before bed. I questioned over and over what my hurry was and why I was impatient when I know I have the ability to be very patient in other situations.

Last Tuesday, I figured it out. The rocking chair I nurse Natalie in is really. really. UNCOMFORTABLE!!! I’m not sure how it escaped me, but it finally dawned on me that my butt hurt, my back was killing me, my legs ached and my neck was like a ball of knots. Duh! I’m not impatient, I was just in pain! No wonder I couldn’t wait for Natalie to fall asleep.

The rocking chair was inherited from my mom, who inherited it from her great-aunt Ida (I think). I was very excited about rocking Natalie to sleep in the same chair that my mom rocked me to sleep in. Not only did they give us the chair, but Mom and Smoky very generously took it to a “furniture doctor” to be fixed up before Natalie was born. That’s all very sweet in theory, but I’m not so sentimental that I’ll continue to sit in an uncomfortable chair.

So we decided to buy a glider and ottoman. I’ve used it two nights now and getting Natalie to sleep has been a breeze. It doesn’t necessarily take less time, but I’m happy to sit with her as long as it takes. It’s so comfortable that I can relax, put my feet up and lean my head back, neither of which I could do in the rocking chair. Last night I actually fell asleep too! I have no doubt that Natalie was picking up on my tension, making it harder for her to fall sleep, and now that she feels I’m relaxed, it’s easier for her to peacefully drift off.

Now I’m kicking myself for not getting one sooner. There are other benefits to the glider besides my own comfort. One, it doesn’t make the floor boards squeak when it rocks. Two, it has padded arm rests, so I don’t have to pick up or adjust a blanket every few minutes to make sure that Natalie doesn’t hit her head on the wooden arms. And three, it doesn’t make terrible squeaks and cracks when I stand up, making a much smoother transition from the chair to the mattress.

What a relief!