For the Love of December 28th!

Yesterday was my 31st Birthday! I had a great day relaxing at home with my little family.
Yesterday was a day of eating well. Since Sadie was sick (her first cold), we stayed close to home. Mark made us a scrumptious breakfast- Eggs Benedict with fried potatoes. I think this should be a new tradition because it was a great way to use the leftover Christmas ham. For lunch, we walked to Farmer Joe's and got some yum sandwiches. Then, we had some of my mom's pumpkin pie with Cool Whip for lunch dessert. Sooz, Matt and Mom came for family birthday dinner. Mom made one of my childhood faves for an appetizer- potato skins. Mark cooked up some steak. Oh, it was delicious. Here's a shot of our bfast:

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year! I like lists...it makes things neat and tidy, so in no particular order, here's a list of the highlights from the day yesterday (and a few from Xmas Eve too!)--

• 7:30 am wake up call from Sadie
• Opening our presents to each other as a trio by the tree- she was in such a happy, communicative mood for about an hour (see video below)
• Mom's cinnamon rolls--SO gooey!
• Opening family presents at my mom's
• Sadie playing baby Jesus in the improvised Christmas pageant at the Christmas Eve service
• Watching an awesome video Johnny made for mom-- it was touching and well done
• Sassy and practical clutch wallet from my ever-so-thoughtful husband
• Handmade and thoughtful gifts from family
• Sadie's Christmas outfits
• Roro loving Sadie's bear rug and my bee socks. She was laughing up a storm!
• Mom reading a Bible passage to start out the morning
• Sadie's long naps, cooperative nursing, and peaceful moods--so I could enjoy family time
• Shining the silver and breaking out the wedding china for Christmas dinner--a first!
• Drinking freshly home-carbonated soda at dinner-- Thanks Scott and Lida, what a fun gadget!
• Anne, Lon, and 6-day-old baby Katherine joining us for dinner
• Mom's lemon meringue pie
• Being with the people I love most

Here are some videos capturing our first Christmas with Sadie:

Points of Joy

We celebrate points of joy in my family. So here are so points of joy for the past few days:

• Roro's laughter when playing with Uncle Mark yesterday.
• Getting a Mani Pedi with my mom.
• My daughter's smile.
• Sadie sleeping from 10pm-5am last night without a peep! Count 'em-- 7 hours! Truly amazing for an almost 6-week old. She also took at 5 hour afternoon nap yesterday. Little miss may be in a growth spurt.
• Sadie rolled over from back to face down on Sunday at 5 1/2 weeks! However, she didn't like being face-down so much. We are proud of our little one! Gma Ruff thinks she's going to be Anderson Athletic.
• Having an abundant supply of milk for Sadie.
• Taking my first bath last night since labor.
• Frosting Christmas cookies with my husband, and laughing together at his questionable frosting jobs.
• Delivering cookies to neighbors.
• Wrapping presents.
• Strolling the aisles of Target sans baby.
• Baby hiccups.
• Roro reading her books on her potty training toilet.
• Running into friends while out and about.

Happy Tuesday! Be joyous!

Bradley Method Reunion

Mark and I took Bradley Method birthing classes before our little one was born. Bradley Method emphasizes natural births--discouraging epidurals or unneccessary interventions and encouraging healthy eating, exercises, along with teaching various positions and calming methods to cope with labor pains. We pretty much threw the Bradley Method out the window during labor. We tried the positions and relaxation (which made me tense!). After 26 hours of irregular (and painful) contractions--I was glad to be put on pitocin. And then, at the 40th hour labor--I was begging for the epidural. And finally, after little miss was stuck on my pelvic bone after 3 hours of pushing---I was resigned to a c-section.
In the end it seems like the Bradley Method is certainly idealistic, and maybe slightly delusional.
I was dreading the reunion (where we meet all the babies) because we had to get so much intervention. I didn't feel like a failure, but I was bitter at the Bradley Method. The reunion was great! So many of us moms got intervention. 3/4 had c-secs. 3/4 had epidirals. None of the births was intervention-free. And, after telling our birth stories I realized that I didn't have it so bad. It was tiring, painful, and very very long--but we had great support from the nurses, doctors, and family. It was nice to debrief with new parents, and encouraging to talk about our experiences. It was also wonderful to see our babies together- all happy and healthy!

Bathtime

Sadie didn't love getting a bath, and actually we felt like we were traumatizing her---so much so that we havn't given her another bath since. But doesn't she look like such a sweetie all wrapped up in her bathrobe? I love it!!

Sleepwear

Above: All bundled up and ready for sleep
Below: Don't I look so fabulously snuggly in my sleep bag?

The Luxury of Sleep

So, little miss was such a good sleeper the first 3 1/2 weeks of her life. She slept a lot during the day and 4-5 hour stretches at night. Quite blissful, I know. But then, she decided she wanted to cry when we put her down. So she cried and cried. We tried the 5 S's (Swaddle, shushing, Swing, hmm- what were the other two?), but she still wouldn't go down from about 9pm-2:30am, and that is way too long for little miss to be awake. When she did get down, her sleep was very restless. I was getting very grumpy and exhausted- hence why I haven't posted since the weekend.

So we got this book 2 days ago from the library: Happy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child (thanks sooz!) And we've been trying things from it for the last couple days, and it's worked...well, at least it did last night!

The book says that if you have an "easy baby that stops being easy"---the chief culprits could be irregularities of sleep schedules, nap deprivation, and too late a bedtime. So, here's a list of what we tried from the book to get her back to easy:

• Putting her down after her 6-7pm feeding (we were putting her down after her 9-10pm feeding, but she wouldn't go down).
• Being consistent. They say either let her put herself to sleep after you do some initial soothing, or soothe her all the way into her deep sleep---but choose one method and stick to it. So we decided to let her fall asleep on her own after we did initial soothing. This means that you have to let her cry at some points for up to 5 minutes. The first night she cried and it took a while to get her down. However, last night we soothed her, put her down with her eyes open, and she fell asleep. She just did this again after her 7am feeding. She was yawning and seemed sleepy. So, I soothed her, put her down with her eyes open. She had her eyes open for about 20 minutes, but I just peeked in and she was sound asleep--no crying, not even a peep.
• Read her cues. Is she tired or hungry? I think our little one was super tired, but we kept feeding her, even after an hour+ of solid feeding. We misread her cues.
• Don't let her go for 2 hours without sleep. Babies 1-4 months old shouldn't be up for more than 2 hours at a time. They say start soothing her to sleep after 1 1/2 hours of wakefulness, so they will be asleep before they've been awake for more than 2 hours.

Sadie has started to be a lot more social (as of last week). She returns your smile some of the time, and likes playtime. So I found it interesting that this book ties sleep issues to a babies' social development. She wants to play, so she fights sleep, if it means more play time.

Well, I know that a child's development is in constant flux. And I know that she may seem like she's on the right track now, only to have a horrendous night of sleep tonight or tomorrow. I am going to revel in the fact that I got 7-8 hours of sleep last night, and that I will post on this blog and take a shower before 10am--that's progress.

Today is a good day.

Watch Me Wiggle!

Here are some new videos from the last couple days, enjoy!

Thanks Aunt Joan and Uncle Dick for the fun new bear rug! I love snuggling on it! Love, Sadie

One is the new eight...

At 1pm today I realized how much little miss dictates my schedule, and how different it is from my pre-baby schedule. It's easy for the afternoon to come without a shower or breakfast, but I can guarantee that I will have already done several diaper changes, snuggle sessions, and feedings.

Here are some shots of us with our little one:

Above: Sadie's froggin' it. This is one of her favorite positions.
Below: Today, Sadie tried our her play station on the floor (thanks for sharing cousin M). She played for about 20 minutes...which mostly consisted of staring at the wall pensively.

Rise and Shine

Little Miss takes a while to wake up from her beauty sleep. Here she is- squirming into the morning! She's also super excited because her little boy cousin is probably coming today! Lida is in labor; we're waiting for the good news any time now.

A couple weeks ago, when little miss was a wee youngin', she discovered the joys of the pacifier. However, she hasn't been too hot on using it since then. Check this video out below:

Happy Monday, Friends!

Uncontrollable muscle spasms

I woke up last night around 4pm to an unusual sound, but it wasn't little Sadie. Meister, our inherited golden retriever, tends to makes sounds during the night from time to time- licking, pacing, whacking his tail loudly against the wall- but this was different. After a minute I realized the sound was indeed coming from Meister on the floor; it was him convulsing. Meister was having a seizure and was shaking in the floor for about 10 minutes. It was a little scary. Mark and I got on the floor wrapped Meister in towels and hugged and petted him through the seizure. He's been very subdued today.

It's pretty common that retrievers have epileptic seizures. I was at my mom and dad's house a while back when he had a similar seizure, and it really worried me. At least I knew he was prone to seizures so I was able to better deal with it last night.

I felt a little guilty after this incident. I had been super annoyed with him all day yesterday because he was being needy and jealous of the time I was spending with Sadie. Poor Meister. I think about all the change I've gone through in the past year, and he's gone through just as much. New owners. New household. New habits. New baby. That's a lot for a 10-year-old dog to handle.

Well, I hope he stays healthy a while longer, and I also hope he learns how to cope with our new little sweetness without being too jealous!

Freedom!

As I was struggling to go to sleep last night to the sounds of a baby, I was struck with joy. I could finally sleep however I wanted! Bliss! Being pregnant, they tell you not to lie on your back and that ideally you need to sleep on your left side (for some reason it's better than the right- I never had clarification on why). My left hip became bruised and sore after all that left-side action (the joys of pregnancy). Then after having Sadie by c-section, it was uncomfortable to sleep on my stomach for a while. Then last night I did it-- I made it back to my ideal sleep position, on my belly. It was a point of joy in my sleepless night.

Here's Sadie being super cute:

Dear friends of mine...

Katie and Trish are two friends that I grew up with, and remain my dearest friends. Over the past few years, it's been fun to watch our respective families grow. It's been especially fun that we've each had a baby girl in the past year... triple trouble! So while we've moved beyond harassing our high school youth pastor, I'm glad we still have each other- and plenty of new things to bond over!

Trish and Katie both took the trek to Oaktown and cuddled with Sadie last week.

Sweet Sadie

At the hospital, noting Sadie's name, a nurse of ours mentioned one of her favorite songs- Sweet Sadie by The Spinners. When we got home from the hospital I downloaded the song, and it's become one of my favorites too. When Sadie is snuggled up against me, I like to sing the chorus to her. Here are some select lyrics from the song:

Sadie, Don't you know we love you
Sweet Sadie
Place no one above you

Sweet Sadie

Sweeter than cotton candy

Stronger than papas old brandy

Once in awhile she would break down and cry

Sadie (Oh, Sadie, baby)

Don't you know we love you

Sweet Sadie

If there's a heaven up above

I know she's teaching angels how to love

Sadie

Its a mean world without you

Here are some recent pictures of Miss Sadie being sweetness incarnate. (And, we're hoping she doesn't discover the Sexy Sadie song by the Beatles for a long long while!)

Sadie love to nap with her hands up by her face. Which means she definitely abhors the swaddle. She took some long naps yesterday.

Daddy sleeps, while his little sweetness snuggles in the crook of his arm.

Okay, this one is more saucy than sweet, especially the inappropriate hand gesture. Where did she learn that naughtiness from? She's so rock star.

I guess she's trying to emulate Cash already, oh my...

It's a nice morning for a walk

Sadie loves going on walks to Peets...

it's usually the big event of the day.

Dad likes drinking Peets while chilling with his little miss...

Now I know my ABC's...

I resisted creating a blog over the last few years. Now, with baby Sadie in the picture, I see the practicality and lure of having a blog (not to mention, having a lot more free time).

This blog won't be limited to Miss Sadie Fern, but will definitely be a place for friends and family near and far to dote on her as she grows. I don't have many plans for what I'll write about- but in addition to updates on little Sadie, I suppose I'll write about things that impassion me- education, Oakland, cooking, reading, politics, my sweetness-Mark, and family.

The blog's title, Armchair Abecedarian, stems from my love of literacy, teaching, and learning. An abecedarian is one who teaches or studies the alphabet or one who is just learning; a beginner.

Enjoy!