Baptism & misc pictures

Here are a few pictures from Camila's baptism on Sunday. We had a private baptism for a couple of reasons 1) we didn't know if she'd still have severe reflux = lots of screaming and 2) this way we could take it slower and translate some things for Fabricio's parents. Camila did well, and only cried part of the time!

Here's my mom trying to untangle a cross necklace that both my sister and I wore when we were baptized. Just a few fun pictures Look at Dad trying to shush a crying Camila!

Just hanging out in her carseat!

By the way, we had a dr appt today to follow up on her reflux and check out her cold. She's doing well, we're keeping the same dosage, and her cold is just that for now. We just need to keep using hte humidifier and Little Noses drops. She's now 12 lbs 3 ozs! Oh, and embarassing moment...huge explosive diaper during dr appt; we had to change her clothes - which I'd left in the car! The dr had to help me change her diaper while Fabricio ran out to the car. What an exciting moment! :)

Sleeping through the night - 3 nights in a row!

OK, we're not sure if this is partially because she has a cold or if she's now ready, but Camila has slept through the night the last 3 nights in a row! She goes down around 9:00 (really easily, we just bounce her for about 10 minutes and she's out) and she doesn't wake up to eat until 6:30/7:00!! The funny thing is we can hear her sniffling, sneezing, coughing and crying a little, but then she goes back to sleep! It keeps us up (we want to make sure she's still breathing!) but it's surreal not to have to get out of bed. It's just in time for me to go back to work (I start Jan 8, working Tues, Weds, and Fridays during January, fulltime in Feb.) We're hoping the Prilosec is truly working, and we're beginning to see Camila's true temperament and personality.

Last night during her typical fussy time (5-8) she was great, even hanging out with Tio Chino and Abuelo Hugo for 30-40 minutes (usually she'd cry after about 5 minutes). Then this morning she hung out with us for an hour after her "breakfast", even just chilling on the couch for 30 minutes. Yes, you read that right. She wasn't being held, and she didn't cry!

Let's keep hoping and praying that we're on a steady improvement!

She loves sucking on her right hand.

So close, but missed getting it into her mouth on this try!

Hanging out with Tio Chino

Hanging out with Abuelo Hugo

And hanging out in the morning. Look! No one is holding me! ;)

Misc comments - screaming & sleeping through the night

I just wanted to add a few comments. The drive out to my parents on Christmas Day (usually a 45 minute drive) was two completely opposite experiences. On the way out there she only fussed a little (5 minutes) halfway through the drive, and didn't fall asleep until the last 15 minutes. Yes, she was alert, even smiling some, while in her carseat. But on the way home (which took twice as long b/c of the weather & horrible driving conditions) she screamed the ENTIRE way. She didn't stop until I was 15 minutes from home. I eventually had to turn the radio up to try to distract her and also give my ears a break from her crying. I didn't want to pull over during the drive b/c of the roads; I figured it would take just as long to get back home! Last night (Wed night) we had put her down for the night around 9:30. The last 3 weeks that means she's out for the night (well, until 3:00 or 4:00). Last night at about 10:00 she screamed. Yes, a single, solitary scream in pain. Both Fabricio and I nearly had heart attacks. The poor girl! Fortunately, she just needed a little comfort (we could tell she was having some reflux problems) and she went back to sleep by 10:20. And guess what...she didn't wake up until 7:00 this morning!!!! She's never done that before! We know it won't be like this every night, but at least it's a step in the right direction. Too bad her morning nap is out of sync now today! ;)

Some play time with Mom

As I just wrote in the last post, I usually get about 25 minutes of play time with Camila after she eats. Well, today I got probably 75 minutes! It was great! She fussed a little, but overall it was probably 75 minutes before she started her non-stop crying. We even got some tummy time in to help build her neck muscles (I'm worried about that, because she spends very little time on her tummy since we're always holding her upright -due to reflux and her general crankiness.)

I tried her out on my Boppy pillow for the first time, and she really enjoyed it! She liked munching on the fabric, and I was able to get her to lift her head quite a lot. And to my amazement, I heard her squeal a few times! This was a complete first for her!

I love this picture!

Here she is munching on the fabric. Yum!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was just as exhausting as Christmas Eve! Here's how we started out the day (you can see the crabby look on her face!) We kept her in her Christmas pjs until 3:00 b/c we didn't want to risk making her cry!

Her Christmas Day outfit (which hopefully she'll be able to wear for normal "dressy" occasions!) And hopefully Fabricio won't mind that this isn't the most flattering picture of him, but I wanted to show you the face we saw most of Christmas Eve and Day! Camila's, not Fabricio's ;)

But to find something positive to say, she slept through CHristmas dinner at my parents, so we got to enjoy both Christmas Eve and Christmas day meals! Opening gifts on Christmas Day was a challenge (I still don't know what we received and who gave what to us!)

I suspect a lot of her crankiness the past 2 days was because of the distruption to her routine, missing naps, and being in unfamiliar places. Today (Wed) she's been a little better, taking her normal nap over lunchtime. But she's now skipped her afternoon nap, and has only slept two 20 minute chunks since 1:30, and it's aready 5:30! It's going to be interesting trying to keep her up until her bedtime around 8:00!!

Oh, I also wanted to mention that her usual overnight schedule is falling asleep around 9:00 (give or take 45 minutes depending on the day) waking up around 3:00 (again, give or take 45 mins) and then up again around 7:00. Not that many of you will care about her sleeping schedule, but I want to write this stuff down so I can read about it 2-4-12 months from now!

Christmas Eve

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Ours was eventful, to say the least. Camila completely skipped her noonish nap (which is her longest, usually 2-3 hours!) on Christmas Eve, so she was in quite the mood at church at 2:00! Fortunately, we were able to enjoy the first 30 minutes of the service, then it she started crying so it was bottle time! Because she skipped her nap, she slept in the afternoon from 4-7:30, so we were able to enjoy Christmas Eve dinner with Fabricio's family. And again, fortunately she went to bed by 10:30 and didn't wake up until 4:00!

Here's her Christmas Eve outfit.

And her Christmas pjs! :)

She was just starting to cry in this picture (the last one of our photo session.) She'd had enough pictures by this time!

Her reflux seems to be improving, but there's no doubt that she's a very difficult baby (very colicky!) While she doesn't seem to be in as much pain as she used to, she still cries and fusses a lot and needs to be held pretty much all of the time. Fortunately, we can (usually!) handle that as long as she's not crying/screaming. It's just very tiring and frustrating. However, as I've said before, she sleeps well at night, so at least we know we have that break at night.

I don't think I've mentioned that her dark hair is now coming in blond (with hints of red.) She'll probably have lighter hair than me! She smiles quite a lot, and we're getting more vocalizations from her. Hints of laughter (more like a squeal). It's those precious moments that help us get through the difficult times. On average, I get about 25 minutes of "play time" with her after each feeding, so I try to get as much fortitude from those moments as I can!

2 months

Here are a couple of pictures of Camila at 2 months. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone! On Monday she had her 2 month appt. SHe did well with her shots (and the expected crying!) She's now 11 3/4 lbs (75%), 22 1/2 inches (50%). As Fabricio says, she's taking after her father's body shape! ;)

Her dr is putting her on Prilosec, but it will take 2 weeks for it to fully work. Hopefully we see some improvement, as life has been challenging. Fortunately, she is a great night sleeper, so we can't complain about that!

RIght now she's sitting in my lap, propped up with my arms (which is a first!) trying to stretch (she just woke up from a nap) and watching my hands & fingers move. Speaking of which, she's discovering her feet. WHen sitting in my lap (facing me) she stares at her feet & kicks them around. She won't be grabbing at them for a while yet, but it's fun to watch her.

Fabricio is currently at the airport picking up his parents. It will be really nice to have his family here for the holidays so they can get to know their granddaughter!

ANyway, she's starting to fuss, so I'd better go. Merry Christmas!

Crying, crying, and more crying!

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in over a week, but it's been difficult lately. Camila pretty much cries 75% of the time she's awake. And during the times she's not crying, we're holding her anyway. She clearly is colicky, but I think her reflux has gotten worse. Fortunately we have her 2 month appt tomorrow, as I definitely want to talk to the dr about this. It just doesn't seem normal that she's crying all the time! It's really difficult for us to go anywhere with her, which means we're pretty much cooped up at home trying to soothe her.... Things in our arsenal: bouncy ball, hair dryer, vaccum, Snugli, swing, swaddling, shooshing. At least they usually work for a while. When I posted earlier, I thought she was the perfect baby on Monday. Tuesday was a completely different story. Crying (and screaming) all day, even when being held. FOrtunately, she had a good day on Wed (I assume she was exhausted from Tuesday) and took a few good naps. But since then, it's been a struggle. We just want to have some moments of quiet time to play with her! Silver lining: she's still a great sleeper at night, sleeping usually 4-6 hours straight, and going right back to sleep after her middle of the night feeding. So, at least I'm not sleep deprived! Last night at her 8:00 feeding (which we're trying to make as her bedtime) she took 6 oz like a champ and went to sleep with minimal fuss! We're going to make that her bottle feeding time (usually we were doing the 5:00 feeding) but this way we know she's getting enough to eat. We're considering that still being hungry may also be contributing to her crying. Anyway, she generally sleeps from 10pm-8am, getting up only once or twice to eat. We're trying to push her bedtime up to around 8:30 so we have some time to relax ourselves before going to sleep. Anyway, I just wanted to put an update since it's her 2 month birthday today, even though there aren't any pictures. I'll try to take some later today (thankfully she's napping right now), but only if she's not crying! ;) I also wanted to write this down so *hopefully* I can look back in a month and see things differently! Hopefully we'll have our happy baby to play with!

Christmas Elf in the making

On Friday Camila and I went out to my parents to make Christmas cookies with Grandma Nelson (ok, my mom made the cookies while we watched!) Camila just HAD to wear her new outfit. We think she likes the color red, which is great for me because it's my favorite color!

She's smiling all the time now, and we even think she's beginning to laugh! It's hard to know for sure, but we think those extra gurgles and coos while smiling are just the beginning. Grandma & Grandpa Nelson and Aunt Melissa were able to hear her first laugh, as Camila was having a great time seeing Grandma Nelson making funny faces!

The medicine seems to be helping her reflux, as she seems to be in a lot less pain that she was just a week ago. Plus, we've had some exciting developments in the naptime area. She took a nap last Wed from 11-2, and THurs from 11-3. We're learning more about her sleepy cues, and are trying to put her "down" for a nap every day around 11:00. Monday (Dec 10) we met Angie & Lily Quale at the MOA, and Camila slept in her stroller the entire time (again, starting around 11:00.) Hopefully this is just the beginning of a routine for her. If only we could get her to go to bed earlier at night. No matter what time she wakes up in the morning, or what time we start to put her to bed, she won't stay down for the night until 10:00pm. Fortunately she sleeps well overnight, only typically getting up twice from 10-9. The funny thing is, we think she actually entertains herself for a while after her 5:00 feeding, but I'm so exhausted I fall back to sleep without knowing for sure! I just hope we can get her to either drop one of her overnight feedings and move her bedtime up to at least 9:00. I go back to work in just 4 weeks (part time during Jan, full-time starting in Feb) so I'd like to have her overnight sleeping a little more in control.

Right now she's entertaining herself in her swing! We just have to remember these good times when she's fussing/crying from 5-10pm (which is usual for her!)

I love Daddy

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures of Camila propped up against the couch. This is one of her new favorite positions (in addition to being held!) She likes to watch what's going on around her, which gives us (and our backs!) a nice break from holding her. SMILE!!