20 Weeks!

Life is never boring with this one, that's for sure.

Some of our favorite things at 20 weeks:

• Waking mommy up at 4 a.m. and then again around 6 a.m. or 7 a.m, ready for the day to begin.  Mommy needs to learn to go to bed earlier, but hey, it's so much fun messing around on Pinterest/Regretsy/Facebook and/or doing housework after bed time.
• Getting kisses from Cartman and being sniffed by Brody.
• Blowing raspberries and "talking" to us
• Being handed a rattle or her new favorite ball and thrashing/shaking it around.
• Chillin' in her Bumbo seat (mommy got a tray for it at the suggestion of her doctor and playing with toys is so much more fun now).
• Chewing on her hands and drooling!!  
• Drooling on the back of daddy's head when on his shoulders.  He's always amazed how quickly he gets doused.

• Trying to catch water during bath time as I pour it from a cup.

She's still shy with new people and doesn't handle being in loud groups very well.  Hopefully with a little more socializing that might change, but she might be shy, too.  And that's okay.

I love a good swaddle in the evening

I was starting to feel pretty smug about Lucy sleeping through the night since eight weeks.
But then I read an article online saying babies should stop being swaddled around four months, because not being able to move freely at night could inhibit crawling later on down the line.
Since I don't want that to happen (yikes!) we've decided to stop wrapping her like a burrito for bed time two nights ago.
Now I feel bad for being so smug!
We went from bath, pajama, swaddling, feeding and then bedtime by eight, and once she was down, she was down!
Sigh.
I miss burrito baby.
We still do the same bedtime routine, but it's a lather, rinse repeat of: nursing, rocking, in the crib, and waking up as butt hits the mattress.
This little cycle usually goes on three times before she goes to sleep, and there's usually a little bit of crying before she falls asleep.
Instead of sleeping straight through until six or seven in the morning, we're waking up at 3:30/4 a.m., awake for an hour and then again at six or seven.
There's not a lot going on on Facebook at that time, but it does give me time to catch up on Words with Friends : )
I've been extremely tempted to swaddle her again but I know she's going to be too big one day for that, so may as well start now, right?
Oh, I'm tired today.

Baby's first Christmas

Was just a tad stressful, not going to lie.  
Our little peanut gets just a wee bit overwhelmed in large groups, and as I've done more and more research, learned is pretty common for babies.
Over-stimulation at it's finest, Andy and I took turns holding our screaming Mimi in a dark room playing a white noise app on our phones.
This happened at the Dumm Family Christmas Party, Christmas Eve morning at Andy's mom's house, Christmas Eve night at his dad's and Christmas dinner at my grandparents.
Although now that I think about it, she's pitched a fit when we're visiting just his mom and grandma, or my parents.  It's usually on days where she's been on a nap strike. 
This holiday definitely went by in a blur.  I feel like I wasn't really present at each family event because I was either in the thick of things with an upset baby or in a different room with her finally sleeping.
I think we both felt that way.  To anyone who feels like I wasn't fully listening when they were talking to me at these events, I'm sorry, but I wasn't.  Is this that mommy brain people talk about?
A big thing I learned from hubs is that my anxiety over feeling judged by family members when she's screaming her head off after reaching her socializing limit makes it harder for me to calm her down.
I can't help it.  I feel so self conscious, like I'm failing, when I can't get her to calm down right away.  That coupled with people staring (not in a mean way, but in a, "Hey, that baby who is my relative is crying" way) and then offering advice on what might make her stop adds to my anxiety.
The last straw usually arrives around this comment, "Oh, I don't mind that she's crying."
Sometimes that's said when someone else is holding her, she's screaming, and they don't want to give her up, since they don't mind it.
Well, I don't like hearing my baby scream.  So hand 'er over.  And for goodness sake, stop staring while I dig in my bag of tricks for a way to soothe Goose, and making comments.  It shifts the contents of that bag and makes it harder to get them out.
Andy and I are really the only ones who are able to talk her off the ledge when she's that upset.
Which worries me for when we're actually ready to have someone babysit her so we can have a date sans baby.
Sometimes I worry that the reverse isolation has made her a mama and daddy's girl, but to that I say nay because she gets out pretty frequently.
I think something people forget is that everything. is. new. to a baby.
Every new face, and every new smell, sound, sight, temperature change and texture when out, whether it be at a beloved grandparents house or the grocery store, is processed by a baby as something new to learn and remember.
Adults can get over-stimulated, too, but it takes a lot for that to happen, and it's usually by the end of the day.  We know how to relax, and babies don't.
We can put on Family Guy, stretch out on the couch and doze off.
Babies need some help in the form of a dark room, a bottle (or boobage) and a soothing sound to get them to chillax.
I'm so grateful that Andy and I were able to work as a team and figure out how to soothe Lucy.  By the time the next family events comes around, or even a visit to someone's house on a nap strike day, we'll know how to soothe her sooner.
During the moments when she was calm, it was nice to be with family, enjoying their company.
I think next year will be a lot more fun, since she'll be one and hopefully walking and ripping wrapping paper up.
I don't want it to go too fast though.  She's already 16 weeks and I feel like that's way to old.  I just want this to slow down, so I can savor every baby moment.