Bedtime success!!

So Lucia slept in her crib for the first time last night!!! She has been sleeping in a cradle in our room since she was born -- well, since she was like three weeks old. For the first three weeks she slept on me. Great for her, terrifying for me. Hence the move to the cradle.

Anyway, I decided that there was going to come a time soon that I would have to bite the bullet and get her into her own bedroom and out of ours. I am not sure why but last night seemed to be the night to do it, but it was. Prior to bedtime routine time (which really just consists of eating liking a pig, getting a new diaper and then being wrapped in a blanket ... her, not me) I switched all the blankets out from her cradle to the crib so she would have something familiar.

Around 8:30pm after gobbling down 6 ounces and burping in my ear we were ready. Luci was rubbing her eyes which is her new number one cue that it is time for bed. You have a pretty small window to get her down successfully before she is "overtired" and then fights like hell not to go to bed, even though she needs to go to bed. Right -- eye rubbing -- we walked upstairs, wrapped her in her nightime blankie, paci in mouth, and down in the crib. I turned on the monitor, kissed her goodnight and left the room.

And stood outside the door for the next 10 minutes listening to her settle in. Then it was quiet.

Fighting the urge to go back in and check on her I went downstairs and settled in for a little late night Law & Order marathon. Right about verdict time I hear a squeal which is immediately followed by crying that if translated would mean, "It is so dark! Where am I?! Why aren't you here with me? Get your ass in here noooooooowwwwwww!!!!!!!!" After a little soothing and the paci being located and back in mouth she corked off again no problem.

At 10pm I went to bed. I brushed my teeth with the bathroom light on, set my alarm while listening to music, and fell into the lightest sleep of my life. She woke up a couple times, needed to eat, get her paci back in her mouth, and of course, make sure someone would come when called. All in all, it was a success. And man did it feel good, all be it strange, to be able to move around in my room without having a heart attack if the floor squeaked when I had to get up and go pee at 2am.

Elephant babies

So last night we watched a Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom on the Animal Planet about desert elephants who live in Namibia in the Namib desert. Being a new mama myself it was pretty impressive to watch what these elephant mamas do to care for their babies. Most impressive is that a baby elephant has to drink up to 4 GALLONS of milk a day until they can properly digest grass, bark and all the other tasty treats the desert provides.

FOUR GALLONS!!!! And to think that I am tired of trying to produce 16-18 ounces a day. Kind of puts it in perspective.

Elephants are so cool. And matriarchal, which makes them even cooler.

One: the number of posts I have this month so far.

Two: the number of times I have thought about posting this month.

Three: my goal number of posts for April.

And finally, Four: the number of carrott sticks I told myself I have to eat before I can indulge in something sweet.

Cheers to trying to lose the baby weight....

Let the Howling begin!

So this picture is from when she was a lot smaller, but the face looks the same when she is pissed and my camera is broken so no new photos for a while. (Lucky for Luci since she is basically the most photographed child ever.)

The newest developments in Barracudaville are what we have decided to call "the Howls". When she is happy, hungry, angry, uncomfortable (ie: pooping) or anything else she howls. Really hoooooowwwwwllllllls. Sometimes it is a little deeper in the thoat and actually sounds like it hurts, and other times it is this high pitched, tounge wagging howl. Either way they are hilarious. At least hilarious to us because I am sure she is trying to tell me something and just gets frustrated when I start laughing and make no forward motion to doing whatever it is she is demanding.

The teething continues to challenge all but the Grandparents! Perhaps it is their years of experience, or as Marc suggested, they are sneaking her candy....maybe a Granny-cam is in order to sort this one out. (Just kidding Mom.)

Well, the Barracuda is summoning me with kicks, grunts and what appears to be a determination to slide all the way down off her perch....and here come the howls.

PS I got to go out again on Wednesday night for a happy hour with some friends....but that is another story.