Week Thirteen - Growing up fast

This past week has just been one of continued blessing as we see Karis growing and changing day by day.


Sleepovers

On Saturday and Sunday Greg was still out of town at the 9Marks weekender. Thankfully, my friend Emily (who is expecting her own little girl in December) stayed the night with me from Friday-Sunday. It was such a blessing! Emily was super helpful watching Karis while I took Chewie out, helping with the dishes and cooking, etc. But more than that, it was just a fun time fellowshipping, sharing my experiences as a new mom and hanging out. Yay for sleepovers! Nonetheless, Sunday night we were so happy and relieved to have Greg back safe and sound!

Growth Spurt
Right on target Karis hit another growth spurt again (12 weeks, she spurt once every three weeks just about!). This time she kept waking from her naps looking hungry so I decided to feed her. She ended up eating a full feeding every 1.5-2 hours during the day! Thankfully, because I pumped her full of food during the day, she only woke up once during the night and the 12 hour growth spurt was over.

Waterfront Walk

 
As a way to enjoy the gorgeous weather and catch up from a long weekend, we had a picnic dinner on the Ohio River at Waterfront Park. It was our first time out there and we loved it! It reminded me a little of the sea walk in Carlsbad and the levy in Sacramento. There is something nice about having a stretch of water nearby to walk beside and people watch.

Chewie was also thrilled to be somewhere new and spent some time barking at a stump in the river to tell it who's boss. 

Sleep Training Update
Last week I was started to get really tired of all the crying going on before naps. It was really starting to wear on me and I was considering revising my methods. However, God was so gracious and toward the end of the week and now consistently through this week she is going down smoothly for her naps! Praise God! I'll wait for her tired signal (a yawn and puffy eyes) and then swaddle her, sing the doxology and put her to bed. She'll fuss and maybe let out a cry or two and then within 5 minutes is out. What a praise! Her transitions at 30-45 minutes are still rough, but are getting better day by day. One day there was almost no crying at all the whole day (until dinnertime, of course!). I am so thankful that Karis seems to be learning well and getting the rest she needs. It makes her such a happy girl!

Also, with her seeming just overall happy and also older, I decided to try taking her off her reflux medicine. To my joy she seems to be doing just fine without it which makes me happy, her very happy (she hated the taste) and our wallet also happy. I also had to start lowering the angle of her mattress because she somehow manages to scoot, swaddle and all to the bottom of the crib. Now instead of a 40 degree tilt, she's only about 10 degrees raised and staying put.

In addition, since her last growth spurt Karis had been waking up at around 4-5sm every night and eating a full feeding. I wasn't sure if it was hunger, transition or I trained her to want/need food in the morning so I kept on feeding her just in case. After this last growth spurt I decided to just wait and see what would happen if I just let her fuss (she would never cry, just kick around and fuss). Lo and behold she went back to sleep! So now we're back (mostly) to sleeping through the night. I am so thankful to God for graciously giving us sleep!

Karis-isms
Rawr!- Karis has become more and more vocal and her sounds (and cries) have taken on higher pitches than before. Her cries have also started to sound a little more like growling so sometimes it sounds like we have a little dinosaur on our hands!

Alert and Awake- Although she was born with her eye closed for practically the first two weeks of life, Karis is now the active social butterfly. She is very alert and awake and wanting to be up where the action is which is so much fun, but also the stage where it is easy to take her out and about and she'll just sleep through it is coming to a close. At church I've had to go to the cry room again (not because of crying, but just her making sounds) and when I went out to run errands she ended up staying awake for the entire 2 hours and completely missing her nap. It will take some adjusting, but thankfully now her wake times are longer (1-1.5 hours) so I'll just have to go out when she is up.

Until next week!