Here are a few updates with Grace:
- she seems to recognize her name! She was laying down next to Brian and me, just being cute, and whenever Brian said "Grace!" She turned her head and looked at him. It was very cool and the first time we've seen her differentiate the word Grace from anything else we say.
- her eyes can follow moving objects more smoothly. She used to kind of turn her head slowly in the direction of whatever moving object was placed in front of her. Now, her head and gaze can follow us all around the room or at a toy as it's placed in front of her.
- she can grab toys (kind of)! When I place an object near her, she can reach, clumsily grasp it, and attempt to bring it to her mouth. Sometimes she has a tight grip! Everything always goes right to her mouth.
- more supported weight on her feet. Grace loves to stretch her legs out, especially when someone is holding her and she can "stand" ok both legs. It is cool though, to see how strong her legs and neck are becoming.
- she notices her own feet! Lately I've seen her kick a foot and watch it move. She reaches for her feet as she wiggles them. She hasn't grabbed a foot yet, but she's definitely aware of her feet and watching them.
- she has tons of saliva. Grace has been drooling everywhere, all the time. The blows these tiny little spit bubbles and just constantly has a steady stream of saliva coming from her mouth. Supposedly this isn't even bad and once she starts teething, that's when the saliva starts. But right now, to me it seems really excessive!
Sleep update:
In other news, Grace spent her first night in her own bedroom last night. She wasn't in her crib (I'm told you can't switch rooms and switch beds all at once), but she was in her swing in her room.
I had reached my breaking point with sleep. Our blissful 6 hour stretches were gone and in fact, I wasn't even getting three hour stretches. That's right, Grace was sleeping for about 1-2 hours and waking up, all night long. Sometimes, I hadn't even fallen asleep and she was up again.
Adding this to the fact that I am returning to work in two weeks, something had to change. When I am actively teaching/entertaining/
Babies' sleep cycles are about one hour long each, and in between each one, Grace is having "wakeful" periods. These wakeful periods either involve her "talking" to herself, whining, grunting, fussing, or worst case: crying. Since Grace had been sleeping literally one foot from my bed, this meant I was waking every hour on the hour as well. I'm fact, she could even be sound asleep and let out a loud screech (still sleeping), which of course was waking me up too. It was absolutely exhausting, and I was in tears from having no sleep.
So, last night, we moved her swing out of my bedroom and into hers. The bedrooms are next door to each other, which gives me some comfort. This way, when she's halfway awake in between sleep cycles, and just making random noises, she will be less likely to wake me up. But she's still close enough still so that if she wakes up fully, doesn't lull herself back to sleep, and is actually crying, then I can go in to comfort her.
Last night was hard. Brian and I gave her the regular night time routine, which is supposed to signal to her that it's bedtime. Lights turned down, white noise on, bath, swaddle, snuggles, feeding. Then we put her down in her swing, in her big girl bedroom, alone.
She woke up about 4 times fussing between 10pm and midnight. But then, she and I both slept from 12-4:30. If she had any wakeful periods, they weren't loud enough to wake me. I woke up at 4:30 to feed her and I felt like a new person. We got one additional hour from 5:30-6:30. 5 total hours of sleep! I could function at work after a night like that.
For these past three months, Grace has been my entire world. I have spent every day living, breathing, sleeping, and feeding in Grace's world. She has been my entire world, and Brian and I have been hers.
That's all about to change. She will always be the best part of my world (besides Brian), but she will now become just part of it, not the entire thing.
I've loved having my entire world be all Grace all the time. But the real world is calling. And I'm heading back to work March 14 whether we're sleeping at night or not. So whatever I can do now to prepare, that's what I'll be doing these next two weeks.
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