Thank You...

....to everyone who helped me out these two weeks while Chris was gone. Thank you Caitlin, Mikki, Robin, Julie, and James for the evening visits, and Hua for the delicious Chinese food. You guys rock.

A Few Things

1. Layla slept from 7:30 pm to 5:45 am. I, of course, woke up at 4:15 and couldn't go back to sleep because I was sure she would wake up any second.

2. Tonight Layla fell asleep while taking her bottle, and she went to sleep without taking her paci. First time for that.

3. When I picked her up from daycare today there were a bunch of ~2 year olds there who were very excited to say hello to me and to point out to me that Layla is friends with the other baby there. The kids are adorable, but poor Layla must be getting used to having children right in her face. 2 year olds don't understand the concept of personal space.

4. Just 3 more daddy-less nights. Also just 3 more couch-less nights. Saturday will be a good day!

Slobbery Fingers

Note the powerful suction.

Day Care

We survived our first day of day care today. Wasn't easy getting out the door....Chris is away all week and there was a ton of thick ice/snow on the car that needed to be scraped. Layla and I finally got out the door just before 7, and she was the first to arrive at Denise's. I left instructions for feeding and gave her a kiss good bye. Made it through the work day and picked her up around 3:00.

Layla was crying when I got there, but Denise assured me she'd just started and that she'd spent much of the day happily watching the other kids. She'd downed her 9 am bottle but only took half of her 1:00. She also didn't nap well in the afternoon.

I think mostly because she was so overtired, she started her lovely screaming around 4:45. I was finally able to get her to fall asleep and she's been passed out in the Baby Bjorn for more than an hour now....I'm typing one-handed because of this. In twenty minutes I'm going to wake her for bedtime, which seems a bit silly.

Then we'll do it again tomorrow...

Baby Plus One

Saturday night, while Trish and Kassam took Ryan to the the Magic Tree House musical, Chris and I babysat Sarah. She was intrigued by baby Layla, and had to try out all of the baby toys and contraptions. Here she is playing with Layla on the baby mat.

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Although Layla appears to be enjoying Dad's guitar playing, about 2 seconds after I snapped this picture, she burst into tears. I'm confident that someday she'll love to hear her daddy play for her.

Friday fun...

Layla and I did some chores this morning, one of which was to take the car for an oil change. While we waited for that to be done, we ventured to Panera. I wish I'd had my camera with me, to take a picture of the most beautiful mug of hot chocolate ever....complete with a mountain of chocolate-drizzled whipped cream. Delicious. While taking my order, the men behind the counter were asking me about Layla....her name, age, etc. One of them immediately broke out into song. Twenty minutes later, as I was getting up to leave, I could still hear him singing Clapton. The poor guy will probably be singing it all day. Not the last time this will happen, I'm sure!

Chris is on a plane headed home. Layla is psyched (ok, actually she's sleeping soundly....but I know she would be psyched if she had the cognitive abilities to understand what's going on!). Anyway, I'm psyched.

Jumparoo

Even though she's not quite tall enough, and she doesn't reach for the objects yet, Layla has been having some fun in her Rainforest Jumparoo, courtesy of the Sunshine Fund at Mommy's school.

More Fun Gym Time

This just keeps getting cuter and cuter....

New Friends

Today I had a nice visit with friends Tina and Erik. Layla enjoyed meeting her new friends, 3 year old Finn and 5 week old Gus. Seeing Layla next to Gus really brings home how huge she's gotten in a relatively few short weeks!

Pat-A-Cake

Chris is out of town the rest of the week (and all of next week), so I'm playing single parent for a few days. Tonight Layla and I entertained ourselves with Pat-a-Cake. She was much more smiley the first few times we did it. Then I got behind the camera and I guess I wasn't quite as entertaining as before!

Tummy Time Gets More Interesting

Who's that??

Play Ball!

Layla is all decked out for the start of Spring Training.

Go Sox!

(What you can't see is that she's even wearing Red Sox booties....and of course we are using her Sox paci today!)














A worn out Red Sox fan.

Mimi and Layla

These past two weeks my mom has been living with us to take care of Layla while Becky is at work. Becky and I are so thankful that my mom, Mimi to all her grandchildren, is here. After taking care of Layla the first 9 weeks it was tough for Becky to return to work. Having Mimi here at home has made things much easier.

Layla wasn't feeling well last week. She's recovering now and Mimi reports that they are having a great time getting to know each other.

Layla loves her time with Mimi. I'm so happy that they have this time together.













Each day, Layla is growing and learning. She "discovered" her hands a few weeks ago, but lately she is enthralled with them. She's a little too enthralled with her "chupa" tho' as you can tell from her reaction to Becky taking it away.

Little Time to Blog

Clearly, going back to work has left me with insufficient time to update the blog. Something about getting out the door at 6:45 am means I have less time on the computer these days. Our afternoons and evenings are pretty full, too. Between making dinner, bathing Layla, feeding Layla, ironing clothes, making lunch, etc, I feel like I barely have a spare moment...and this is WITH Chris's mom still here helping us out a ton. Having a baby has certainly made me much more appreciative of what my own parents (and all parents) went/go through in order to raise their kids. This is not easy work! I'm sure we'll figure it out someday, but right now I can't imagine how people parent more than one child at a time!!!

Judy and I went to the pediatrician today for a follow up for the bronchiolitis. Layla's just a tad stuffy in the nose, but her lungs are clear and her breathing sounds great. We were able to ask some questions about the scream fests that Layla has been putting us through at night, and about the massive poops she's been producing. As I figured, the doc couldn't give us a ton of definite answers, but gave us a few things to think about. The good news is, that Layla only pooped through ONE outfit today (instead of 4) and she managed to get through the night without wailing her head off and turning beet red. Let's hope the good luck continues and she sleeps through that midnight meal she's rediscovered since being sick.

More Play Time

Proof that we do not always torture our child with NPR.

Friday Night Fun

Trish stopped by with the kids last night so that Mimi could spend the weekend in NH. The camera was acting funky so we didn't get the best pics, but here are a couple....




Layla in her sleep sack, hanging with Auntie.
















Chris helping Sarah play with her birthday gift. Sarah turns two on Valentine's Day! (which, Chris is quick to remind me, is also the day that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training).

Spoiled Girl

And I'm not talking about Layla! Last week, before Layla got sick, she managed to sleep until 5:30 a.m. Even when she wasn't sleeping quite that long, she was at least sleeping until 2:00 and even 3:00 or 4:00. Since she's been sick, her sleep has been WAY off. Even now that she's doing better and isn't very wheezy at night, she has been waking up just about every hour after midnight until morning. And she sure isn't hungry each time. I really don't think she's waking because she's sick and I'm starting to think that she's messing with me. Last night at some point she woke up and I tried to give her the paci because often that knocks her right back out. Well, she spat it right out, looked up at me, and smiled. Very cute, but oh so frustrating! I definitely got spoiled!

In other news, she is doing really well during her days with Mimi. We'll post a picture soon!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Chris is out of town on business, but Layla (and I) wish him a happy, happy day! There's a secret dessert surprise waiting for him when he returns tomorrow night!

We Did It!

Layla and I made it through our first day apart, and I only called home once! She had a good day with Mimi, and took her bottles without a problem. This is especially important since she's sick and needs to stay hydrated. After work, Mimi, Layla, and I went to the pediatrician. She affirmed that Layla's illness has not gotten worse, though she warned that it can take babies an entire week or two to kick this. She's still wheezing quite a bit and coughing at times. Last night she did not sleep well at all, which meant that we did not sleep well. We're all crossing our fingers that tonight goes better. We'll head back to the pedi early next week for a follow-up....sooner if we're worried.

Back to Work

After a pretty sleepless night, I am heading back to work today. More later!

RSV can't keep me down

Mom and Dad are exhausted after spending the last two nights with little sleep but Layla is going strong. As our previous posts relate, Layla has RSV which is basically a really bad cold for babies. We have been giving her Albuterol treatments every four hours.

Yesterday, she sounded awful. Every rasping, cackling breath broke my heart. She slept in the pack 'n' play right next to our bed so that I could check on her easily. She was a trooper while Mom and Dad did the best they could. There were several times in the middle the night where she was coughing and hacking so forcefully I jumped up thinking, "This is it, I'm going to have to perform baby CPR." She would finish her coughing spell and go back to a perfectly restful sleep. How do babies do that?

Anyway, the above video was taken around noon-time the day after being in the ER at Children's. Mom gave her a much needed bath to wash off two days of coughed up mucus and milk. (It was all over her.) You can hear her labored breathing but as heartbreaking as it sounds, it is music to my ears as it's nothing like the cacophony we were hearing yesterday. I never thought I'd appreciate rhythmic wheezing in sotto voce. Even RSV doesn't stop Layla from enjoying her gym.

Layla, now washed and changed, was left alone with me while Mom and Mimi (my mom) went out shopping. (How did that happen?) Layla isn't fully recovered. I just had to hold her upright so she could cough up some phlem more easily, but she's doing better today than yesterday. Hopefully this trend will continue.