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!!