The First Month

I can't believe Sarah's first month has already come and gone! She had her one-month check-up yesterday, and she is doing great. She is in the 48th percentile for her weight and the 75th percentile for her height. Because she was feeling so grown up, Sarah decided to try out her new Bumbo chair--doesn't she look old? Nana says she is not old enough for a "chair," but Sarah enjoys sitting in it anyway :-) Sarah is also developing some new hobbies--her two favorites are smiling at the pendulum on our mantel clock and chatting with herself in the mirror. It's so fun to see her start to be more alert when she's awake!

Sleepy Little Girl

I think Sarah is starting to get the picture about sleeping at night. After one good night with her Nana and two decent nights in the hotel last weekend, Sarah had her best night of sleep ever last night! Yesterday afternoon she cried more or less the WHOLE afternoon and evening, from about 2:00 until 10:00. If she wasn't eating or being burped, she was crying. I am still trying to figure out if something I ate didn't agree with her, if she was having stomach pains, or if she was just plain fussy. With all of the fussing, she forgot to nap, so she was also REALLY tired. Lots of yawning but no sleeping. By 10:00 I handed her off to Jeremy so I could get a little bit of sleep (I was preparing for a long night!). Apparently she fell asleep right after I did, and she slept until 3:00 a.m.! At 3:00, she ate a little and then fell back asleep until 6:30. She ate a little more and slept until 8:30! Sarah, mommy, and daddy got something like 9 hours of sleep last night! She has been crying again this afternoon but is now taking a nap in her swing, so we'll see how much she sleeps tonight!

First "Vacation"

We went to our cousin Grant's wedding last weekend in Rome, GA, and Sarah got to experience her first trip to a hotel. She did a great job riding in the car (slept the whole time), and she slept right through the wedding ceremony, too (whew!). This was the first time in a long time that ALL 14 grandchildren (and all of their babies) on my mom's side of the family were together at one time. Sarah did better than we expected her to do in the hotel for two nights. They gave us a Pack and Play for her to sleep in, and she did actually sleep off and on each night. I think Jeremy and I got about 6 hours of sleep each night. It was really hard to sleep with her right next to us because she kept making little noises that woke us up. We were glad to get her back to her own room on Sunday! All in all, we had a very pleasant weekend, and now we will start planning for our next trip--Destin, FL in two weeks!

Nana's Magic Touch

Nana (my mom) came to spend the night with Sarah last night so that mommy and daddy could get some sleep. Nana must really know what she's doing because Sarah was on her very best behavior and actually spent most of the night ASLEEP! She slept from 11:30-3:00 and then from 4:30-7:00. Yay Sarah, and thank you Nana! Aunt Rebecca also spent the night Wednesday night but Sarah did not cooperate quite as well with her sleeping--thanks for your help, too, Rebecca!

ZZZZzzzzz.....

Well, for Sarah's first two weeks I was trying to be optimistic that her sleep patterns would improve with time. However, now that we are going on three weeks, it looks like her patterns are getting worse rather than better. She still has her days and nights confused-really confused. Her "pattern" consists of falling asleep around 11:00 pm and then waking up around 1:45 am to eat. That would be great except that she then wants to stay wide awake, ready to play, from 2:00 am until at least 6:30 am. During this time we are trying to keep things quiet and dark (which means a boring night for mommy or daddy sitting in the nursery with nothing to do) Eventually as the sun is coming up and we would like to begin our day, she will get so tired and fall fast asleep until about 11:00 am. After eating again at 11:00, she goes back to sleep for a few more hours and continues to doze off and on all day with a couple hours of alert and awake time here and there. Waking her up from a day nap is next to impossible unless she is starving! We love Sarah lots and we are really hoping that one day soon she will figure out that it's more fun to sleep and night and play during the day because mommy and daddy are getting really tired! Other than the sleep issues Sarah is doing great--she is getting bigger and bigger each day and is more alert and "playful" (when she is awake) each day.

First Tub Bath

Oops--I didn't mean to go a whole week without posting. I guess we've been busy! Sarah had her first tub bath on Sunday night. She did not like it at all in the beginning, but by the end of the bath I think she was enjoying it (see the before and after pictures). She had another bath last night and was happy the whole time! Hopefully this means she will love the water like her mommy! We went to Rebecca's graduation party on Saturday evening, and Sarah got passed around to so many different people--she stayed awake all afternoon getting ready for the party but then slept through the whole thing. We are still trying to convince her that people stay awake during the day and sleep at night--I guess she'll figure it out one day!