Learn something new everyday...

Chris and I are backing up our phones right now so that we can transfer everything over from our iGhettos to new, working replacement iPhones. It's taking a while. So here's a quickie blog post.

We got rid of Gianna's swaddle a month ago because ummm, she was escaping a few times a night and it was getting ridiculous. It was really rough going at first, like waking every hour, but she's really taken to sleeping on her side and stomach now and that really helps. She usually wakes up 3-4 times throughout the night now, which is a HUGE improvement (although she would sleep for longer stretches in the swaddle, she wasn't sleeping for as many total hours--usually 11-12 now, so it's a trade off). Two of those times I feed her, the other times Chris usually pats or bounces her back to sleep. It's a good mix because it helps both of us get longer chunks of sleep, gives Chris quality snuggle sleepy time with her, and she likes being comforted in both of these ways--win win.

Well, every once and a while, she wakes up at a time when Chris isn't available. Take tonight, for example. It's about 10:30 and Gianna has stirred herself out of sleep because she has herself perpendicular to the crib and most likely has banged her head on the bars and has her foot shoved in between bars on the opposite side. This is the normal scenario these days, as she becomes more mobile. I'm sure it's quite unpleasant to wake up like that lol.

BTW. Chris observed that she likes to throw her legs back and forth and wiggle into this position and then use her legs against the crib bars to continue turning herself in a circle. Pretty crafty. 

Back to the story. So today, Chris was in the shower when this happened, so I was up as Captain Bounce-a-lot.  Gianna always tries to eat me as soon as I pick her up, sucking on my arm or shoulder, but then falls back to sleep pretty quickly. Today, she was like sucking on anything attached to me with super desperation. I yelled to Chris that I needed back up because she was trying to eat me, and I wasn't planning to feed her again until she was actually hungry.

When I handed her to Chris, the sucking/eating desperation stopped immediately. I was like..........WHAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?! She doesn't try to eat you, too?!?! Other than chomping or sucking on fingers, which she does basically to anyone, he said no. I really just thought that was what she does all the time. Turns out we are each having completely different experiences when she wakes up. Which is incredible, I think, because she's not even always awake and only opens her eyes half the time. When I pick her up, she smells me and smells food, so she assumes she will eat, with out even seeing me. When Chris picks her up, she expects something different to happen and reacts accordingly, without even seeing him.

Cool, right?

It's Summer Time and the Livin's Easy

And by easy, I mean super busy.

No. Seriously. I feel like the wheels are constantly spinning. Mostly, it's because we've got some big stuff brewing in the Rendall Household that is literally sucking up all our time and energy.

Chris and I were talking about how we have to sometimes stop ourselves in a moment and remember how sweet our time is with Gianna and to really "be" with her when we're playing, not distracted by a to-do list running through our heads, or whatever else has our attention. I know that 10 years down the line, we will not regret putting off brewing the next tea batch for kombucha or postponing responding to e-mails for another week to be with Gianna. I also know that I am very guilty of doing the opposite sometimes and thinking of my day from nap to nap, so that I can "get things done", so I am trying to make a concerted effort each day to ignore my to-do list for a little bit.

Today, my "stop" was deciding to ignore my ever growing to-do list for 45 minutes and have pool time with my favorite baby before nap time. Snapped some quickies of the wee one while she explored and studied her new environment :-)

 

 

 And let's face it. When your baby is this cute (and your baby IS that cute, because he or she is your baby!), the e-mails can wait :-)