Watchin' Football and Droppin' the Beano

Cora likes beer, football, and post-chili beano. Great. She also likes her Auntie Diana, who reads her bedtime stories. Tonight, it was Goodnight, Washington, D.C. (Thanks, Becca!) In the first shot, she's actually chillin in her bouncy seat watching the Redskins. Notice the drool; they were winning at that point of the game.





P.S. No babies actually imbibed beer in the making of this blog post.

4 month appointment, 10K, & yet another concert

This poor child never gets a break; we're always on the go. She seems to like it, though.











We had her four-month check-up Friday. She was 15 lbs. 7 oz., and we think 25 inches. She switched in percentiles--this time she's 75th percentile weight, 90th height, so she stretched out. She got the same round of shots as last time, and again she proved how well her lungs work. The doctor was surprised by her sitting, and she even cleared us to take her in the jogging stroller. It's a good thing because this baby is born to run (in other words, she has no choice). We're excited to take our first family run on Monday.





























We didn't start running with her this weekend because we ran a 10K on Saturday, one that did not allow jogging strollers. Our friend Lisa played with Cora, while Jade, Dave, Josh, and I ran. We were so happy that we not only finished the race but all did it under an hour! It was fun but definitely harder than pre-baby. We had lunch at a diner afterward, where she was a bit fussy, probably due to the effects of the shots.

After a short nap, we loaded her up for a trip to Philly's Theater of the Living Arts for a family concert put on by They Might Be Giants. Cora and I love their new children's album, Here Comes Science. The concert was spectacular, literally, with tons of confetti, puppets, and fun lighting. Cora had a good time dancing in the Baby Bjorn and watching all the people. We ended the day with some yummy veggie cheesesteaks and a milkshake and listened to Prairie Home Companion on the way home.


































We had so much fun spending the day with Cora and our friends.

Crying it Out

Cora has NOT been sleeping well lately. Since we returned from Canada, she's been up every 1-2 hours, and we thought she wanted to be fed. Josh decided that it could just be a bad pattern that she fell into when we all shared a hotel room and let her eat every time we heard her cry. We really couldn't manage the no-sleep schedule much longer and maintain our sanity, so he suggested that we try to let her cry herself to sleep in the middle of the night to see if she really was hungry or if she was just looking for comfort. The first night, Thursday, was hard. One of the sessions was almost 2 hours of off-and-on crying. Josh took care of the short comfort breaks because I knew I would pick her up and rock her or let her eat, which would defeat the whole point of this attempt. It seems to be working, though, because the second and third nights, she's only woken up twice during the night (between the hours of 7:30 PM and 4:30 AM), and she's managed to soothe herself back to sleep both times. We feed her again at 4:30, and then she even goes back to sleep for another 2 hours!! So far, we like the "Ferber method," even though it's SO HARD to let her just cry. It makes for less stressful naptimes, too. She used to scream and thrash when I would try to rock her to sleep for a nap, and now she cries a couple minutes in her crib alone, which means I don't get frustrated trying to rock a resistant baby to sleep. Let's hope this sleep system keeps working!!

The Raspberry

On her fourth month birthday yesterday, Cora learned to imitate sounds back and forth. And the lucky sound is of course a family favorite--the stinker noise. Here she is "talking" to her daddy.

My First Conference as a Mommy

Just that. And we all survived, though just barely on Thursday. I presented a workshop at the Attending to Women conference on UMD's campus this past weekend. I brought Cora with me on Thursday, thinking I could try to attend a session or two. Under normal circumstances, this would be no problem, but someone decided that Thursday would be a great day to have some teething woes and scream from 1 PM until 10 PM. I was at my wit's end. I did attend part of a session, and she actually didn't cry. Instead, she cooed when the presenter was giving her talk--she wanted to be part of the conversation. So we stepped out of the session where she immediately started crying again. Oh, well. Fortunately, one of the women with whom I was presenting the workshop has two little ones, and she held the crying Cora for awhile when we met for dinner and workshop prep. After picking Josh up from the train station at 9 PM and driving to Boyds (with Cora still crying), we handed her to Opa and Grandma for a break. Thank God for grandparents. Even better, Opa broke out the gin and Josh put a bit on her gums to help with the pain. I'm a bit nervous at how well she liked it. She grabbed Josh's finger and pulled it into her mouth for seconds.

Our session went very well, and Josh watched Cora Friday, so I could attend the other sessions. He had help form Grandma and Opa Saturday (I believe they went to IKEA--I'm very jealous). Since she has been waking up every 1-2 hours at night lately, we were pretty exhausted by the end of the conference Saturday evening, but it was worth it.

Nobody warns new moms about the guilt they'll feel about stupid things. I felt so bad taking her to campus with me Thursday when she was so upset. With a little encouragement from my family and some of the other mothers at the conference, I'm starting to realize that you can't stop doing things for you. A day of crying won't turn Cora into a felon, right? And I got so much out of the conference, not just in terms of information, but also in momentum for continuing my own work.

On an unrelated note, Cora is in the middle of a 2 HOUR NAP right now. We've been to a used book store and a noisy coffee shop, too. And she's wearing her Steelers gear in honor of the game tonight.

Done rambling.

Sleep Strike

Why is it that babies trick you into thinking they're starting to figure something out and they're going to go along with what you want them to do, only to suddenly "forget" how to do it? Cora has decided that sleep is a pointless endeavor. In the words of the infamous Barenaked Ladies, "Who needs sleep? No, you're never gonna get it." And we're not. Cora wakes up every 30 to 90 minutes all day and all night. Fun.

I was just starting to think that I could be an adult and do work again, too. With a conference this weekend and a draft of a prospectus due, I just might go a little nuts.

So, I need coping strategies. Help!!!

First Rice Cereal

Josh gave Cora her first taste of rice cereal, and thanks to the marvels of modern technology (skype and ichat) Grandma, Opa, Papi, and Gigi all got to watch the mess that ensued. The pictures are in order.