Mom's first Business Trip, or, Accidental Ferberizing

On Monday of this week, at about 3:00 am, I left home to head to Dallas on my first overnight business trip since Kaia was born. I have to say, I was a little nervous about leaving her - not that I didn't think that Jason and Nina would take good care of her, but I WAS a little worried that either she'd be fussy and give Jason a hard time (I was remembering back to my first weekend alone with her when Jay went to the Black River Stages Rally) OR that she'd wake up in the middle of the night criying madly and he'd just sleep blithely through it.

From the time I got on the plane, though, I was working pretty much non-stop. I worked through the flight, rushed to the office, and jumped straight into meetings for the rest of the day (well, as soon as I went to the Zen room and pumped, that is). I called Jay from the taxi and checked in, and things seemed to be going fine, so for the rest of the day I didn't worry too much. I had dinner at Ian's and called again from there, after Boo had gone to sleep. Jason reported no problems at all.

Since she'd just started with the solid food, AND skipped both her naps on Monday, when he told me Tuesday morning that she slept through the night it didn't seem too unusual - after all, she's done it before periodically. But when Wednesday morning he reported the same thing, I thought to myself, "well, SOMEONE is sleeping through the night. But it might not be Kaia." I suspected that she'd woken up and fussed for a while and he just didn't hear her. But, since he reported that come morning, he'd hear her at 6:30 or so and go get her, and she was happy and unharmed, whatever happened in the middle of the night wasn't hurting her any, apparently.

When I got home Wednesday night, she was already asleep, but sure enough, around 3:30, I heard a few squawks coming from her room. I figured that if she'd already been sleeping through, I should just wait to see if she'd go back to sleep, and sure enough, 15 minutes later, she was quiet again. Same thing last night.

So, I suggested to Jason that he might have a new career opportunity - Ferberizer for hire! "Don't think you can stand to hear your baby crying in the night? Don't have to! Just hire Jason to sleep right through it for you!" Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining a bit! Hopefully she'll keep it up.

She turned 5 months on Monday, and I can't believe it. And she's still the cutest little baby boo I've ever laid eyes on. Your mamma and poppa love you very much, Boo.

Happy New Year!

Hello sweet Kaia,

So, it's been a while since I've posted anything new to you - between Christmas shopping, decorating, and a big party, your grandparents in town for a week, New Year's, and then a 10 day California vacation, it's been a month since my last note. A lot has happened!

During your last pediatrician visit, Dr. Scott mentioned that you were a little behind on rolling over. Well, your daddy did NOT like that at all. He became a tummy time nazi right away and started on a campaign to help you learn to roll over. As you know, you are not much of a fan of tummy time even in the best of moods. But, Papa prevailed and kept putting you on your tummy and cheering you on, and lo and behold - over the vacation, you learned to roll over! Not only front to back, but occasionally you are rolling back onto your tummy too.

You also have started talking some language that your dad and I don't quite understand, but we're pretty sure you understand most of what we're saying. You seem to be better at the hard consonants (Ba, Da, Pa) so I am pretty sure you are going to say DaDa before you say MaMa. But that's OK.

You keep growing and growing too, and perhaps as a result of the tummy time and increased mobility, you are now scooching around your crib - which led me to have to raise up the side rail for the first time. Which means I have to lean way over to get you in and out of the crib now. You're almost out of your size 2 diapers too!

You also seem to want to eat some real food soon - you are reaching for our plates and making little chewing motions when you watch us eat. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I think we're going to try some cereal with you tomorrow.

Finally, you were a DREAM on vacation. We took you motorcycling, hiking, rock climbing, flying on airplanes, driving in cars, riding on rental car buses, you name it. With the exception of one kind of rough day hiking, you were a happy kid and made our vacation very enjoyable. Nothing a proud parent likes to hear more than how cute and happy their baby boo is!

So, we're still working on how to get you to sleep through the night, and I'm going to talk to the pediatrician about that tomorrow, but even with a few wakeups a night, "my babygirl, my little Kaia girl, is the best baby girl, in the whole wide world." I love you a ton, boo.

Mamma