Sleep Defense

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com


Last night we instituted what I call “sleep defense.” It’s a little trick that we use every now and then as a last resort when Clare is giving us several nights in a row of rough sleep. I had heard that 4 months is a hard time for sleeping, but I don’t think I fully understood how hard it would be until now. We’ve had several weeks of off-again, on-again nights – Clare was waking up to eat 2 or 3 times a night instead of her usual 1 or 2 times, crying and needing to be shushed back to sleep almost every hour, or just wanting to wake up and play after her 4 am feeding (my personal favorite). We won’t even go into what a challenge naps have been. Sometimes it’s felt like all I’ve done on a given day is try to get Clare to sleep. Well, Saturday night it came to a head and J and I maybe had 2 hours of interrupted sleep each. We were in Bend and Clare decided that the pack and play, which she had slept in fairly well the night before, was not acceptable to sleep in. Every time we tried to put her down in it she would slam her heels into the ground, wake herself up and start to cry. Three hours of this… You’d think we would have figured out the system earlier but I blame the sleep deprivation. She would sleep in bed with us, however she was tossing and turning so much that *we* didn’t sleep.

So last night we did full on defense. We put an air mattress in the nursery and J took the first shift. He slept on the air mattress and got up with her until 2 am. I got blissful, uninterrupted, full REM-cycle 4 hours of sleep. At 2 Clare was hungry so I fed her and we switched places. J had the bed to himself, the fan on high and two shut doors between him and the baby, while I snoozed on the air mattress and got up with her at 5:30 am for her tantrum/feeding. The best part of the night – this morning at 7:00 we were all smiling! It’s amazing what 4 hours of continuous sleep can do to make the world right!
We’ll see what tonight brings. The sleep thing is rough. It’s made harder by all of the “sleep experts” who have conflicting advice. I’ve googled “4 month old sleep problems” more times then I can count and have read everything from that it’s my fault that my baby isn’t sleeping and if I don’t “fix her” immediately then she will have sleep issues for life to just wait it out and it will get better but nurse on demand until then. I’m going to call our pediatrician today, just to get some advice and hopefully some reassurance that it really is not my fault that Clare is struggling to sleep. I always feel better after talking to her, so it can’t hurt.
This little smile makes everything better though.
This picture was taken Saturday morning – after a decent night of sleep. She really did have a fun time in Bend – we went for a hike in the snow (on a cleared path) which she liked a lot, and she got to spend lots of time watching the dogs wrestle. That’s her new favorite thing and will make her laugh almost as much as her Daddy does.
Sitting in the Bumbo seat! We’ve noticed that Clare is a ‘watcher’ and is fairly deliberate and thoughtful (for a baby). This picture pretty much sums that up.
Mom found this dress that my Nana bought for me when I was a baby. We put it on Clare and tried to get some good pictures. Clare was more interested in playing with the lace than looking at the camera. When she did look at the camera she was more worried than anything. I don’t put her in a lot of dresses, so maybe that’s what has her worried. Still, she’s about the cutest worrier I’ve ever seen.

Abundance

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com


On this Thanksgiving we have so many things to be thankful for at Casa McPherson. Of course we always have had lots to be thankful for but for some reason this year it seems especially important recognize it. The combination of the economy and Clare’s arrival has really distilled our priorities this year. We’re a blessed family and it’s good to remember that.

* First of all we’re thankful for a healthy baby! I still have complicated feelings about Clare’s birth, but more than anything I’m so thankful for a healthy baby. My heart goes out to all families who are spending their Thanksgiving this year at the NICU or the Children’s Hospital.
* We’re thankful for a supportive family. Our parents have carried us through the challenges of first time parenthood. We can’t thank them enough.
*We’re thankful for a healthy family as well. We want to keep everyone around for a while!
* We’re thankful for each other. This marriage thing is hard work (the only thing harder is parenting at 3 a.m.) but we are Team McPherson first and I’m grateful for that.
* We’re thankful for our extended family – including our friends! We love you!
* I’m thankful for every time Clare smiles at me. The most wonderful feeling in the world is to be loved by my little girl – I know she won’t always smile at me so I treasure every time she does.
* We’re thankful for our little condo! It’s small, has limited storage, is a flight of stairs away from the street, and has bad windows – but it keeps our life very simple and an affordable mortgage is always something to be thankful for.
* We’re hugely thankful for our new kitchen!! Big thanks to my parents (especially my dad) and Teresa for all of their help with the project!
* We’re thankful for Mary. We only wish we could pay our nanny more since she’s worth it! She loves our little girl so much and takes such good care of her. The picture above is an ‘art project’ she did with the babies.
* Lastly we’re thankful for our jobs. They are second to our family, but we are happy to have them since we know that many people do not right now.

A big, beautiful world

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com


Another wonderful week in the world of Clare. I really should just rename our blog from Adventures with the Family Mac to One Mom’s Adoration of her Baby. I recognize that I lay on the adoring a little bit thick – but what can I say, it’s how I feel. Last night I was changing her diaper over at Mom and Dad’s and all four of us adults were standing around her, making big silly fools of ourselves trying to get a smile out of her. I think even the dogs were in on it. Mom commented that it really isn’t fair to subsequent children in the family because there will be fewer times when the entire attention of four adults (and 2 dogs) are entirely focused on one child. Or maybe that’s actually a good thing… if we keep up this level of attention and adoration for her it will be hard to keep her little ego in check. Oh well, I’ll deal with that later 🙂

Anyway, back to reality, we had Clare’s Four Month check up this week. Her pediatrician thinks she’s cute as a button and very smart and strong (of course). Our girl is weighing in at 12 lbs. 15 oz. and is 24 inches long. This makes her in the 85% for height and the 25% for weight. She’s outgrown all of her little 3 month clothes in length, but the 6 month clothes bag around her skinny little body. Oh well, she’s a good eater so I’m not worried. The funniest part of the appointment was when the doctor put a cold stethoscope on her chest. Clare did not like that and cried a little bit. After that she stuck her lower lip out and glared at the doctor for the rest of the appointment. It was pretty funny – she’s awfully cute with her little lower lip out that’s hard to take her pout seriously.
This week she’s pulling her knees up to her chest more. She’s not quite grabbing her feet yet, but she is grabbing her knees and rolling them from side to side. She’s tipped onto her side already once, but I think she’s still weeks (maybe even months) away from rolling over. In general she’s not a great roller – sometimes she’ll go from front to back but not very often. She isn’t as interested in moving her body around, she’s more into grabbing, feeling and putting things in her mouth. In child development terms it means that she’s working on her fine motor skills instead of her gross motor skills.
She’s very interested in the world. Yesterday she was watching the dogs wrestle and started to smile and laugh. Mom pointed out that it’s the first time we’ve seen her smile when someone hasn’t been engaging with her. The world is so interesting to her that it’s hard to keep her focused on important things – like eating and sleeping. There are always cats to watch, voices to listen to, skylights to look at, parents to smile at, y’know, stuff for a busy girl to do.


Four months

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

I forgot to include all of Clare’s new fun tricks in the last blog post. Gosh darn, guess I’ll have to write another post fawning over my amazing daughter and include a cute video or two of her.

As much as J and I might like it, time isn’t stopping and our girl keeps changing every day. Not to say that development is a bad thing but she just seems so perfect as she is that I want to enjoy every stage to the fullest. Still, it’s fun to watch her learning and changing all the time. Some of her latest things:
  • She’s becoming a happier baby. Not to say that she wasn’t happy before, but she’s very quick to smile and look around and less quick to cry. Her first three months she had very little tolerance for her needs not being met immediately. Now she has a little more tolerance and adaptability. For instance, she can be distracted out of a fuss by something interesting (like us smiling at her). She doesn’t cry getting in and out of the car seat, having her clothes changed, or other little things that used to really bug her. She’s also enjoying being able to entertain herself more and we can set her up in her crib, play mat or in her Bumbo chair with a toy or two and she’s pretty happy for a little while.
  • She loves most to interact with people. Even when we do set her up with some toys she plays happily but really lights up when we come back and talk to her.
  • She is becoming a champion raspberry-blower and practices all the time. Seriously, if she’s awake and not talking she’s probably either blowing a raspberry or is about to. She’s quite proud of herself after she does it.
  • Sleep is something that should be fought – with smiles and coos. This isn’t terribly new (I think I remember writing about it a month ago) but it’s kind of annoying. Particularly at night she’ll be almost asleep and then open her eyes and blow a raspberry. Last night she did this at 4 a.m. and promptly got herself put in the swing to entertain herself while I dozed. When she was done playing she fussed a bit, I picked her up and she promptly fell asleep in my arms.
  • She’s a pretty good sleeper – though, as always, writing that will mean that tonight is a rough night. In general she goes down between 7 and 7:30 and wakes up once or twice to feed before getting up for the day between 6:30 and 7. On weekends we can usually put her down again until after 8 and then her morning nap is shorter.
  • She’s beginning to reach for things with both hands and use both hands to manipulate and play with objects. Before she was just using one hand and occasionally the other hand would bat at the toy. Now she’s figuring out how to work both hands at the same time. Of course they always work in the direction of her mouth.
  • She’s still our little cuddle bug and I’ve taken to calling her “Bug” for short. She loves to be held, sit in your lap or lie next to you. However, she now is getting very good at grabbing hair, earrings, necklaces, mouths, etc. so I’m on defense when I’m holding her.
She continues to be our great joy and surprise us every day with new things. Here are some videos of her ‘singing’ with Mary and laughing with her Daddy.


Strong Baby

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

Here is our little bathing beauty in the tub the other day. She loves bath time and kicks and splashes so much that I have to put her little tub in the big tub instead of the sink like I used to.

Here is our girl about to go on a walk with Mary. It’s the first time out for her Patagonia coat – a gift from JP and Debbie. It’s so puffy you can hardly see Clare’s face – but she stayed plenty warm on that walk!

Clare’s favorite thing is to sit and talk to someone. Here she is talking and laughing with Daddy. She’s a very strong baby and we joke that she as perfect posture. She’s getting to the point where she doesn’t like to lean back in her bouncy seat or on pillows, she wants to be straight up. She actually does a little stomach crunch and lifts her head off the ground a couple of inches trying to pull herself into a sitting position if she’s laid back. She loves to sit in her Bumbo chair and really loves ‘standing up’ like she is here. Seriously, J is just balancing her, she is holding herself up with her legs. She also has a really strong back and can hold herself while we pull her up by her hands. I suspect that once she figures out balance and control our little girl will get mobile very quickly using all of these muscles she’s developing.
Finally, here are some pictures of the kitchen remodel. J and Dad have done an amazing job with it and I can hardly believe it’s the same dingy little kitchen. The cabinets are in, one last countertop needs to be installed, we’re putting in a microhood and then it’s all cosmetic. It will be soooooo nice to move back into my kitchen – between the construction and living in boxes the house is chaos and I’m really excited to put it all back together.
Just about every evening and weekend for the past two weeks has been spent on this project. Big thanks to J and Dad for all of their hard work!!


Our Lil’ Punkin’

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

Have you ever seen such a cute little pumpkin? Big thanks to Auntie Terri for the Halloween outfit! Clare is a little to young for trick or treating, but we did pass out candy at Mom and Dad’s house. Mostly it was an opportunity for photo ops with our little cutie-pie.

This week has mostly been about the kitchen remodel. J has been putting in lots of late nights getting the old cabinets out, the new dryer and cabinets in. He and Dad are working on the countertops right now. Ordinarily you do all of the cabinets first and then move onto the countertops, but since J is going to be gone the rest of the week I asked that he get one wall as finished as possible before he goes. Ideally, it will be finished enough to have a working sink – but I’ll be happy with some cabinets and a dishwasher 🙂
Upper Cabinets are gone!
J working to disconnect the sink
New upper cabinets!! Wheeeee!!
Here’s some more pictures of our little cutie! Check out the adorable little BabyLegs legwarmers!

Here is a picture of Clare laughing. J kisses her tummy and shakes his hair on her chin – she giggles and giggles! I can’t get her laughing like that, it’s a special father-daughter thing.

Irish Eyes are Smiling Again

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

It’s a much healthier week so far for Clarebaby. Jeremy and I are very relieved that the oral antibiotics have cleared up Clare’s eye infection and she’s smiling at us with two eyes again instead of just one.
She’s growing up so quickly and is so much fun to play with. She’s also getting more independent and will amuse herself with toys while we do other things. Of course she likes it best when we talk to her, but it does make it easier for me to get things done while she’s playing.
This last weekend we went down to Corvallis to visit with Glenn, Beth and Linda. I didn’t get any pictures of Glenn, Beth and Linda with Clare – but they had lots of fun with her. Beth especially can get Clare laughing. It was a beautiful fall day and Mom sat outside with Clare enjoying the sunshine (which has since disappeared and it poured rain today).
Our sweet little swaddled baby. Mom said she looks like a little pea pod in her swaddle.
Look at our big girl in her Bumbo seat! She love to sit up and look around.
Here she is this morning while we were getting ready for the day. She’s such a happy little cuddle bug in the morning – it makes it hard to concentrate on getting ready for the day.
The excitement for this week is that while I was in Corvallis visiting Glenn and Beth, J and my dad stayed home to fix a leak under the sink. Instead of fixing the leak, they decided to remodel our kitchen. Just kidding. J and I have been talking about remodeling our crappy little kitchen since we moved into the condo. If you haven’t seen our kitchen (which most people haven’t) you’ll have to take my word for it that it could win awards for poor design. For starters it has our washer and dryer in it, making it a laundry/kitchen. The cabinets are small and oddly laid out – and there’s not very many of them. Our widest drawer is 4 inches wide, and there is about 2 feet of useable counter space. Yeah, we didn’t buy the place for the kitchen. Anyway, J found a good deal on modular cabinets and countertops, we bought a new dryer so we can stack it on the washer, and away we go. We’re in demolition mode right now (J is pulling nails out of the cabinets as I type) but hopefully when we’re done I should have more cabinets and twice as much counter space. Yes, pictures are coming soon.
And, finally, here are some more cute pics of Clare baby. I know that nobody looks at this blog for the articles 😛

You Should See the Other Guy

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

It’s been a little bit of a stressful week at our house. After a very healthy three months our baby girl had her first illness. She’s always had a blocked tear duct but this last week her eye became infected. I guess this is common with blocked tear ducts. Before it got better her little eye was almost swollen shut and she looked like the world’s tiniest prizefighter. It came an issue because she didn’t respond to the eye drops and Jeremy had a rushed last minute trip to the pediatrician and pharmacy to get oral antibiotics. Then we discovered that Clare doesn’t particularly like the taste of her antibiotics so we’ve been experimenting with different ways of getting her to eat it.

Clare-Bear continues to be a happy little girl. Even with her obviously uncomfortable eye she was smiley and surprisingly not fussy. She didn’t sleep as well as she has been sleeping, so this was our clue that her eye was bothering her.
Besides dealing with Clare’s illness we had a nice weekend with a friends’ first birthday. There were several little one-year-olds running around, giving J and I an indication of what’s to come in a few short months. Those little one-year-olds are busy! It’s a reminder to us to enjoy this time when she’s small and just loves to be held and talked to.
As an example, here is a video that I took (it’s not just Mary who takes the videos!) of Clare. Her little face lights up when I talk to her – it’s the best feeling in the world.

Tress Meses

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

Happy Three Month Birthday Clare! Our girl is now a quarter of a year old. Three more of these and we’ll be celebrating with a party and cake – I can’t even imagine that far ahead.
The past week has been quite eventful in the world of Clare. She’s made major developmental steps forward, getting a lot more vocal, grabbing things, seeing objects further away, watching things for longer, etc. Generally she’s just more engaged with the world and capable of interacting with it. It hasn’t come easily though. Clare decided last Friday that sleep was for newborns and big girl three-month-olds didn’t need it. Seriously, J and I had nights of sleep like we haven’t had since she was a week old. We had several nights of struggling for hours to put her down and then she woke up every two or three hours. I’m not sure how effective I was at work this last week, but hopefully I didn’t make any major mathematical errors. Fortunately last night, when we were approaching the breaking point at Chez McPherson, she only woke up twice and we got that blessed four-hour block of sleep. There’s nothing quite like a full REM sleep cycle to make someone feel human.
It’s an amazing thing though, even after a rough night of sleep (or lack thereof) where I’m about at the end of my rope all it takes is one smile and I forget the exhaustion and frustration of the last ten hours. Look at this pretty smile though – can you blame me?
Here is a picture of my Dad with Clare. You can see how happy she is. I say that when she’s not mad about something she’s a very happy baby. When she’s mad about something though… watch out world!
Finally here’s another video courtesy of Clare’s nanny. It’s a pretty good example of her current verbal and motor skills.