Routine Experiments

I am queen of trying new experiments on my children. All in the name of getting into a routine. I love routine. I thrive on routine. I feel lost and overwhelmed if I stay off routine too long. I would like to think my girls appreciate my OCD tendencies as well. Ryan has to reel me in sometimes. A gentle reminder that it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing is useful every now and then. But I have been trying new experiments on Naiya, in an effort to get her to take naps the same time as Alexia. So I've been waking her up early from a few of her naps, and timing to see how long she lasts in between certain naps. I've finally come up with what I think works for all of us.

I thought it would be beneficial to look back and be able to remember our routine with two under two. All subject to change, of course. My top priorities at this point: synchronized schedules for the girls, to get Naiya to sleep through the night consistently (enough of this teasing me for a couple weeks by sleeping all night, followed by a couple months of waking up)

Here's what's the latest:

• anywhere between 5-7am - Naiya wakes up to nurse, give her eye medication, put back down immediately
• 7:15am - I wake up, my wonderful husband makes me a cup of coffee (he even sometimes surprises me with a City Dock drink of choice-vanilla breve), spend some time in my bible and praying/journaling in hopes of gaining perspective for the day
• 8am - Alexia wakes up, eats breakfast, then plays
• 9am - Naiya wakes up, nurses
• 9-10am - we all play together
• 10am-noon - nap 1 (I haven't figured out who is the best one to put down first...any tips?)
• 10am - ME time! What's best for me to do (I sometimes default to the computer to do mindless, fun stuff) is workout, and tackle my weekly house goals (yes, I have a routine for that too), get ready for the day, return phone calls if the girls are still asleep
• noon - both girls wake up, nurse Naiya, then I put on some music and we all have lunch together at the table
• 12:30-2 - this is the time of day I use to get out of the house with the girls, or we just play inside together
• 2pm - nurse Naiya, give eye meds
• 2-4pm - nap 2 (this has been getting shorter and less predictable)
• 2pm - me time again, I'll take this time to email, blog, and prep for dinner
• 4pm - girls wake up, nurse Naiya, play
• 5pm - start cooking dinner, succumb to giving Alexia far too many snacks in an effort to hold off the meltdowns til Ryan gets home and we can eat for real
• 5:30 or 6ish - nurse Naiya, Ryan gets home and we eat dinner together
• 7pm - Ryan gives the girls a bath, then we hang out as a family and Alexia can almost always be found sprinting naked all across the house
• 8pm - nurse Naiya, bedtime for both the girls
• anywhere between 9-10pm - wake Naiya to give eye meds, put immediately back down
• 4:15am - Naiya wants to nurse, but I just started to let her cry it out, hopefully her body will get out of this habit

And that's all she wrote. I'm sure just when I'm comfortable with knowing what to expect, it will all change again. But that's okay, I'll just have to bust out some new experiments.

Naiya is 8 Months 02.04.10

Still one of the most laid back babies. Although she recently has discovered her voice. Mostly "dadadada" or "babababa", but at meal time she will scream really loud to let us know she needs more food. I have found myself shooshing her kindly, because I am not very fond of loud noises, especially when I'm not expecting it. In turn, Alexia now responds to Naiya's screaming with, "Naiya! Sh!" It makes me laugh and feel sad at the same time.

Naiya has sprouted two more teeth. With grace I might add. Her two front teeth on the top have come in, and not a single symptom was seen (unlike her big sister). Looking back, some of the most stressful times of Alexia being a baby was when she was teething. Woooooowee! Naiya just seems to take life in stride. Rarely cries. Pretty content doing whatever. Very much fitting the second-child mold.

She's still not consistently sleeping through the night. I just recently got the nerve to let her cry it out in the middle of the night. With Alexia, I was a nazi with creating good sleep habits. But with Naiya, it's different. I think because she rarely cries, when she does, I feel like something is terribly wrong. And her cry is a sad one. The kind that sounds like she's hyperventilating. Alexia's cry was (and still is) just plain loud and angry-sounding. DRAMATIC. (Just like her.) I have also not let her cry it out sooner in order to keep the peace with the rest of the sleeping household in the middle of the night. But last night was our first night of truly letting her cry it out. We were prepared, we turned Alexia's fan on for white noise, Ryan went in to console her and put her back in the middle of the crib (she kicks herself to the top of the bed and rams her head into the crib bars). But it worked! She went back to sleep on her own, and hopefully this will only take a few more nights until she is truly sleeping through the night.

Naiya is still nursing seven times a day. She refuses to eat pureed food, and has actually thrown up every time I've tried to give her mashed potatoes. So I've released myself from trying to feed her baby food. (Which is a relief, because I really don't like the pureed food phase. I'm too impatient.) So she sits with us for every meal, but her diet consists of bread and crackers. Mainly Graduate Puffs (we buy bulk).

Here's a photo of Naiya in all her naked glory:

She is on the road to beginning to crawl. She is rocking on all fours and will take a "step" with her hands, but then ends up on her belly. I haven't been able to wrap my mind around the fact that she is going to be mobile soon. I feel like she's too little to have four teeth and be crawling all over the place! I have experienced with both babies the feeling of not wanting them to grow out of the baby phase. I remember with Alexia, I would get upset when people would tell me how fast she's growing. But at the same time, I'm excited for Naiya to get to the 9-month mark. That was my favorite age with Alexia! My favorite memories of that age is when we would say, "yaaaaaaay!", Alexia would throw her arms up in the air and say "yay" back to us:

So I'm looking forward to Naiya doing this with us.

Naiya is wearing mainly 3-6 month clothing, some 6-9 month. She has switched to sleeping on her back. She sucks her right thumb and cuddles with her blanket, just like her big sister. Although, unlike Alexia, we rarely see Naiya sucking her thumb outside her crib. When both of the girls are tired, I have found them sharing Alexia's "bankie":

Naiya pulls at her ears when she's tired, and does not like to be rocked to sleep. She gets fidgety and annoyed when I try to read her a book before bedtime. She kicks her legs like a champ when she's excited. She loves buttons. She loves the Ergo frontpack. She has a mohawk, that sometimes looks blonde, and other times it looks almost auburn. Her eyes look like they're going to be hazel, like her Daddy's. And I have GOT to post one of Ryan's baby photos, because they are literally twins. There are moments where she reminds me so much of Sterling, her older cousin (Tanya's oldest).

Here are the girls' 8 month comparison: