Flash Books: "Baby Bunny" and "Bumblebee"
Extra Books: "Knuddelhase" (Anita Jeram) and "Kiss Good Night" (Amy Hest)
One of the things I love most about being a mommy is going into my daughter's crib in the morning and seeing her face light up when she sees me. She is so happy in the morning and the joy is so evident when I look at her and she wiggles and giggles until I pick her up. She is solid sweetness and I just can't get enough of her!
With Christmas coming up, I've been doing a lot of thinking about Annabelle's Christmas portraits. Christmas will be right in between her 3 month and her 6 month portraits. Normally I go to The Picture People (they do an outstanding job!) but I think I'm going to try something different this time. I'm hoping the weather will be nice because I'd like to have some outdoor portraits of her. I've found a photographer (reasonably priced too!) who does outdoor photography, and I'm so excited about it that I'm already picking out the dress I want Annabelle to wear! :-)
Annabelle has stopped napping. This is a phenomenon that I haven't been able to figure out yet. She started sleeping through the night at just over one week old. At two weeks old, Annabelle was sleeping through the night 2-4 times a week. At 3 weeks old she was sleeping through the night 3-5 times a week. By 4 weeks old we simply expected her to sleep through the night every night...and we were right. She's been sleeping through the night, every night, since she was 4 weeks old. The only problem is, she traded her nighttime sleeping for her naps because she stopped napping at 4 weeks old, right about the time she began sleeping through the night. She'll doze during the day for 10-30 minutes, but that's about it. Now if I'm holding her, then that's a different story. She'll sleep for hours in my arm, but wakes up (and STAYS up!) when I try to put her back down. I've never been able to figure this one out because I've never allowed her to nap in my arms. Whenever she would fall asleep in my arms, I'd gaze at her for a little while, but then put her in her crib. She's always slept in her crib, yet she's refusing to nap there now, choosing either my arm or nothing. Anybody else have this problem? Annabelle took a 30 minute nap this afternoon in which she fell asleep while holding one of the little critters on her mobile-thingie. I thought it was absolutely adorable!
We read a little more from "James and the Giant Peach" and are now up to the point where James and the peach (and all the insects inside) are floating in the ocean and have discovered that they are surrounded by sharks. Everyone is counting on James to figure a way out of this difficult situation. It is taking us a while to get through this book, as Annabelle doesn't concentrate very well yet, but I'm confident that that will come with time. We also read "Knuddelhase" which is the German version of Anita Jeram's book "Bunny my Honey", which Annabelle really enjoyed looking at. To end the night, I read "Kiss Good Night" since that story takes place "on a dark and stormy night", much like the one we are experiencing right now. It is dark and chilly out right now, the wind is howling, and we are all warm and cozy and safe inside. Life is good.
2 comments:
I LOVE the picture with her little hand holding onto the mobile. That is priceless! My Annabelle has always been a great night-time sleeper, but she has never been a really good napper at all either. When she was younger, between 3 and 6 months, she would only nap in my arms too. When I laid her down, she would wake up, and then she wouldn't go back to sleep again. She gradually started getting better and started napping on her own, but the naps rarely lasted longer than 45 minutes to an hour (with her alone in her crib). When she started crawling around 8 months, she started napping a little longer (about 1-1.5 hours). However, every time I think I get her figured out, she'll change the length of time she'll nap. This usually happens when she's learning something new though such as crawling or walking, etc. When I introduced a "lovey" to her, this seemed to do the trick to help the naps last longer. I gave her a bunny security blanket (with a bunny head on top of the blanket). She would just hold and stroke the bunnies soft ears, and this would calm her for longer. I also found that if I timed her naps at about 3 hours after she woke up in the a.m. and then 3 hours after her morning nap, then she'd typically be tired and ready to sleep. I think the lighting in the room had an effect on her too, so I tried to dim the light in the room by laying a blanket on the head board of the crib (not over her though but just to cover the slats on the sides). I've heard you can buy special blinds that really block the light from coming through (if your room is really well lit like hers is). Hope that helps! It sounds like your Annabelle is just a curious little thing, and she doesn't want to miss anything. My niece and nephew BOTH took a morning nap for at least an hour and then a three hour nap every afternoon until 12 months of age. My niece who is 20 months old still naps for 3 hours every afternoon, and my nephew didn't give up the morning nap or afternoon nap until he was between 2-2.5 years of age. I think they are all so different though. Was your oldest daughter a good napper?
BTW, thanks for your comments on my blog. I actually went out that day after she bumped her head in the bathroom, and bought the corner cushions. It turns out that I think she actually knocked her head on the corner of the door in the bathroom and not on the tile floor. It is so scary the things they can get into!
Thanks for the encouragement...it's good to know that Annabelle MIGHT outgrow this non-napping phase she's currently going through! I like your idea about the blankets on the crib - I'm going to try that! As for my older daughter, I adopted her from the foster care system when she was a preschooler, so I didn't go through the baby stage with her. Annabelle is my first "baby".
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