New Places to Sit and Time with Family

So these days Joanna is very into rolling over back to front. Unfortunately she then gets stuck and must be rescued. Even more unfortunately, she tries this rolling over thing in her bouncer while she's buckled in (I have no picture of this -- you'll need to use your imagination). This means is no longer very fun for Joanna to sit in her bouncer much. We have discovered that sitting in the high chair is pretty fun, though. (It has a 5-point harness, so no rolling over!) "I'm not eating food here yet, but I have a great view of my feet!

Here's Joanna in the Bumbo chair in the nursery at church. She loved it! She could relax and watch everything going on around her without having to hold herself up or worry about rolling over and not being able to roll back.

On Sunday, we went to my Aunt Kalli's house across town for a memorial service for my Great Aunt Bettianne who passed away last month. It was a sad reason to get together, but it was wonderful to see a lot of family, most of whom hadn't met Joanna.I have always been very blessed to have a very close extended family. My mom grew up with her cousins. I grew up with my second cousins. The little boy in the picture above is Keelan, Joanna's third cousin. Keelan just loved Joanna -- he is such a sweet 3 year old! He called her his baby sister. So cute!

Joanna getting a loving hug from Keelan. Also, Mikey, Joanna's other third cousin, and their mom, Kara, my second cousin -- got that? We simplify in my family by calling everybody older Aunt or Uncle so-and-so, and everybody the same age our cousins.

My Wonderful Aunt Gail held Joanna while I ate, even though she was crying and crying (just tired, nothing to do with Aunt Gail!).

At the end of it all, Joanna was pooped. We got her to bed a little late, and she sure was ready -- not a peep out of her before she fell asleep!

It was a very short visit to cram in time with everybody, especially with such a fussy Joanna! I look forward to spending more time with everyone. I really enjoyed getting to visit a little with my cousins (Joanna's 2nd cousins once removed!) from across the pond and everybody from the Dallas area. Everybody's growing up so fast! We have to get together more often...

Not much here to report

Posing with Mommy then Daddy for 4 month pictures in the backyard.

Sitting with Daddy in church -- so attentive to the sermon.

So I'm posting this on Wednesday morning, a mere 5 days after that top picture of Joanna and me was taken, and we're both already wearing the same outfits again... at the same time. I really need to start some kind of system where I rotate the clothes I just wore to the back of the closet or something instead of wearing the same 4 outfits over and over again. Of course that would probably involve some ironing...

So Petite

Today Joanna is 4 months old, and we had our well-baby visit to the doctor this morning. Here are her stats: She is 10 pounds, 7 ounces, 23 inches long, and her head circumference is 16.25 inches. Some may say she's scrawny (Gran!), but the doctor's term exactly is "petite," which I like better. Her height, weight, and head circumference are all headed up the graphy thing like they should, and her height and weight are proportunal to each other, so she looks great. He was also impressed with our little rolling girl and her head control. He said she's a little ahead in those areas (of course!) probably because she's so petite (not so much girth to maneuver, I guess!). So in the well-baby area of the appointment things look great. Here's the not so great part: we get to enjoy a visit to the cardiology department of Texas Children's Hospital. Dr. Harper heard a heart murmur (a little squirt, he called it) that he hadn't heard in Joanna before, and he would like her to have a complete cardio work-up at TX Children's. Okay. Basically we shouldn't worry. She's doing too good for there to be something really wrong -- we would see it if she was having some kind of heart failure or something, so the work-up will really be to find out why there's a murmur. Could be a little hole or something. We're working on getting an appointment scheduled; hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. For now, keep us in your prayers. I know everything is fine, but of course we're likely to be anxious until we find out what's going on in that little heart.

4 months old and ready to visit the doctor

On the exam table, chatting with Daddy

Lately, I'm completely obsessed with these cute feet!

"Stay at home" Mommy

Word around here travels like wild fire, so this won't be news to some of you. Matt and I have decided that it's time for me to be a stay at home Mommy. While bringing Joanna to work with me has been an incredible opportunity, those days are coming to an end. This week I "turned in my resignation" as it were, but have agreed to stay on as long as is necessary to find a replacement. (As if anyone can replace Joanna and me!) So keep that search in your prayers as well as our soon to be single-income family. I am thrilled about soon being able to devote more time to my family. I know it's going to be no cake-walk, but I know Joanna will benefit from being at home and getting a routine established there. Of course now I'll have less excuses for my dust-bunnies and grimey bathrooms!

Father's Day, flying, and flipping over

Happy Father's Day, Daddy. I love you! My daddy got a buttonniere for being the most recent father at church. Isn't it pretty?

On Monday, Mommy and I took Gran to the airport. She's moving to Newark, NJ (hopefully not for too long) to be a flight attendant for Continental. I miss her already!

Here I am at Aunt Mindy's house working on turning over. When my mommy lays me down on my back, I can flip over to my tummy. When I was first learning this, I kept getting my hand stuck (like this picture), but now I think I've got the hang of it.

Turning over definitely is hard work. Once I get over, I forget how to get back on my back. I like being on my tummy, but it takes a lot of muscles to hold my head up so sometimes I cry.

Before I leave you, I want everyone to see my shoes. I don't usually wear shoes (well, I don't walk yet, you know) but these matched my outfit today and before too long they will be too small to wear so Mommy said I could wear them today. It's a very interesting feeling to have shoes on your feet, I must tell you.

Family time

On Thursday, my Mom graduated from flight attendant school and Continental flew my sister down for a couple of days so she could be here for it. I took Friday off of work so Mom, Kathryn, Joanna, and I could just hang out. It was so nice!

Joanna and Aunt Kathryn at the graduation. Joanna was such a good listener!

Gran and Joanna after the graduation. Gran is in her uniform. She was the only grandparent in her class!

Gran working on the computer with a Joanna on her lap.

Look at that face!

On the sleep front, things are going amazingly well at night. Joanna has slept in her bed the last 5 nights with minimal waking. The last 3 nights, she has slept 8 to 10 hour stretches! Eventually, I'm going to have to teach Joanna that 5:00 isn't morning, no matter what her Daddy says! For now, I'm just so grateful and amazed that she's getting good sleep at night. She's still not napping well during the day. I'd be okay with that if she didn't get soooo fussy and tired. She just really fights daytime sleep. She's actually fallen asleep in her bed or port-a-crib for a few naps, but it requires a lot of crying (more that night) and she only sleeps 20 or 30 minutes. I think she needs more, but I'm sure we'll fall into a groove at some point. She'll usually fall asleep and sleep pretty soundly in the car, but we can't exactly (nor should we) go jumping in the car for a ride everytime she needs a nap!

Third great night of sleep

If the past three nights are any indication, we have a great night sleeper on our hands. I know it's early enough in this process that things could still really change and we haven't exactly hit our groove yet, but... That child knew she was ready. The only reason I started this early was because nothing else was working. Nothing new, nothing old, nothing. I think she just needed to sleep on her own. Last night, I woke up at 4am to discover she hadn't stirred since 7:20pm when we layed her down. I had trouble getting back to sleep! She ended up waking at 5:15am. 10 hours straight of sleep; 10 and a half hours between feedings. Oh my goodness! I know many of you can imagine a certain soreness I was feeling after 10 1/2 hours. Our days are still pretty rough, though. She isn't napping well, but I'll be interested to see if she does any better at home this weekend. My office and her port-a-crib aren't exactly her favorite things. I'm so proud of my little Joanna -- she knew exactly what she needed. If I could only understand what she's trying to tell me about days... "What's that, Lassie... Timmy's in the well?"

Ah, that elusive friend...sleep

Well, Joanna's "sleep training" has officially begun. I know I've chatted with some of you about this. Basically I'm a worrier and that's why we didn't start this a week or so ago. I worried she was too young; I worried she would cry ALL night long; I worried she was having to learn too many things at once (sleeping on her own, sleeping in her crib, not nursing all night). Did my worrying help? Um, no. So when nothing else was working at all, Matt and I decided Joanna needed to be aquainted with her crib, and learn to self-soothe. I know we're not to the end of this transition time yet, but I'm amazed at how well she did the first night. I was convinced she would cry for as long as I would let her, but given a little time, the child CAN self-soothe. Who knew? Not us; we never let her try! I think nighttime is easier, even though we're tired and want to sleep too, because we're at home not bothering anyone. Naps are very hard for us because we're at work, and even though my office is pretty secluded, I feel as though I'm being watched (or overheard). Even so, I am feeling really positive about the experience thus far.

Hopefully my next post will not start out "False alarm... she won't stop crying...". Until then, keep this sad little baby girl (and her crazy parents!) in your thoughts and prayers as we attempt to do what's best for Miss Joanna.

What's New

I haven't posted much (at all) this week, although I did write one posting that I decided not to publish. It was really just too much information. Suffice it to say we've been having major sleep issues lately: Joanna is tired, we're tired, and we're not quite sure what to do about it. In better news, Joanna is as cute as ever and learning new things all the time!

For a while now, Joanna has loved bath time. She can be fussy fussy in my arms, and like magic, the water makes her happy. She loves to kick and splash. I'm looking forward to when she can sit up in the big bathtub and enjoy toys and things. Bathtime is something we all look forward to these days.

This little Winnie the Pooh outfit has ears on the hood! It's too hot to wear these days, but we had to get some pics because she's so cute!

I usually change Joanna on my desk at work so I don't have to get all the way down to the floor. She loves looking at this little sun that's hanging there. She smiles and talks to it while I get a little work done.

Joanna has some major head control these days. She gets tired pretty quickly (hard work!), but she likes to look around from this angle. She always produces a lot of drool in this position!

We appear to have made a major breakthru regarding riding in the car. Joanna doesn't view it as torture any more! Yea!! If she's tired, she will now fall asleep in the car. If she's happy, she sometimes will fuss, but mostly she'll talk to her little bug friends on her carseat for the whole ride somewhere. I have a couple of times now been able to actually run quick errands leaving her in the seat (which I take in with me, of course). It is a whole new exiting wonderful experience to have a child who is soothed by riding in the car.

Joanna doesn't actually use her bed to sleep in, but occasionally she likes to lay there and play. Today, she was trying so hard to get a good angle in her little mirror that she stuck her leg through the slats. It was a little while before it bothered her and Daddy had to go in and rescue her.

Car Show

A car show is not usually something I'd pick to do on a Saturday, but this was the 1st annual KUMC car show and food drive, and since I'd helped a tiny bit with preparations, I had to see how it all came together. It was really a fun time! There was a nice turnout and lots of pretty cars to look at. Miss Joanna arrived at the show pretty tired, so we bounced around for a while until she fell asleep, then put her in her stroller for a nice outdoor nap in the shade. Luckily, the SOSS building was open and air conditioned, so Joanna had her lunch inside where it was cool and comfortable.

Here we are trying to take a self portrait. That hat is so much bigger than her head!

We took our pictures beside some pretty cars. This is an Austin Healey (whatever that is!)

I know what this car is -- a yellow checker cab! There was also a 1930 Firetruck at the show.

Here's Matt admiring some kind of purple car.
We really had a great time. There were hot dogs and snow cones and face painting and balloons and lots of people to talk to. I certainly could have used some outdoor air conditioning, but at least it didn't rain!

TGIF

We sure are ready for this weekend! It's amazing how a 4-day work week can feel as long or longer than a regular week. I wonder why that is, exactly.

Here are some recently shot "family pics." We really do need to get someone to take a picture of the three of us! If you'll notice, Joanna and I are both wearing pink and white...aren't we cute and matchy!

One of my bosses called my hair-do "business mom." I like it.

Joanna is such a sweet smiler these days. If we try hard enough, we can almost always get one out of her (excluding, of course, those manic tired-crying times).