Monday, October 13, 2008

you say swaddle, i say burrito...

There is no way I will remember everything I wanted to blog about over the last week. I have got to get into a better routine with this, but the idea of a routine has become somewhat of a joke. Well, we are developing more of a schedule nowadays, or better yet, "flex-scheduling." In other words, I can dream up a schedule for the day, but it must remain flexible as Harper has the final say!

I could not even tell you what we've done over the last week. I no longer think in terms of "days", but rather, blocks of time in between feedings. It's amazing once you begin producing milk, suddenly you become all the rage! I'm happy to provide Harper with this benefit, because I know how good it is for her. However, I will remind her of the extreme amount of effort I put in for her any time she refuses to do her clean her room, feed the dogs, or do her homework. (Who am I kidding...my memory is going down the toilet...I probably won't remember any of this by the time she can tie her own shoes!)

I just put Harper down to bed. I had to laugh as I swaddled her, because she protests it so vehemently! She does not like to be restrained, but rather, prefers to wildly flail about her arms and legs. Once she is swaddled up like a burrito, she begins her Houdini routine. The lower half of the burrito shoots up into the air, then back down again. Up and down the bottom of the burrito goes until she has excavated the outermost layer of the "tortilla" from beneath her bum. At this point I leave the room and keep my fingers crossed that she sleeps, regardless! When we go in to scoop her out of bed later (much later if we are lucky), it is common to now find her broken out of the swaddle, spread eagle, with a small strip of blanket around her waist like a belt. She is as active out of the womb as she was inside of it!

Other notable developments: she is thisclose to breaking into a smile. Well, she smiles like crazy as she fades off into sleep after a feeding, but we aren't quite there during her alert-awake phases. She has mean-mugged us a lot these last few weeks, but we are finally getting some nicer and friendlier faces out of her now. It's about time - I felt like I had a super skeptical and doubtful baby with the faces she made - furrowed brow and all!

Tummy time is paying off. Harper has made great progress with her neck strength lately. She can go for long stretches (several minutes at a time, which I'm sure is a long time for her) stabilizing her head and neck. The bursts end with a neck wobble and the bonk of her head into our shoulders or her pillow. She doesn't give up easily, and we think she will have it down (or up, rather!) before too much longer.

We've also gone on two field trips outside of Waco/Woodway in the last week. Last Wednesday, we drove down to Killeen/Ft. Hood to visit Papa Howe in the hospital. Harper did great on the trip, and my dad was happy to see her again. I tried my hand with a public restroom changing table for the first time at the Killeen Chili's restaurant, and it was easier to maneuver than I imagined. Today, Harper and I drove out to Valley Mills to have lunch with Jeff. She tends to fall asleep after five minutes in the car...so predictable! I promised her that we would take her someplace much cooler than Ktown or the Valley on our next field trip. Right now it looks like we will venture to Austin for the weekend, which should really give all three of us a chance to prove ourselves!

I do have more pictures to post, but I'm being realistic by not pretending to have the energy to post them tonight. I'll do my best to get them up tomorrow after Harper's first, fourth or seventh feeding of the day!

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