The Miracle of the Pacifier

After a month of complete rejection, Sara has finally decided that maybe the pacifier is not such a bad thing after all. This has pretty much been a miracle for me since I was her pacifier until now (which meant I got little sleep when she just wanted to suck on something). The pacifier is helping her to make her three hour intervals between feedings that the pediatrician had told us to work toward and it's also calmed her in the bassinet at night and she's doing a bit better going down for the night.

Sara has started to get tired of being swaddled and wants to sleep with her arms either up in the air or up over her head. I'd been putting her down in the swing during the day without bundling her up and she seemed to like it, but we couldn't get her to do the same at night. Yesterday I decided to try putting her down in the bassinet during the day with her pacifier to see how she would do. I took the sleep positioner out of the bed and just put her down with a blanket lightly around her and her arms free. She wasn't sure at first, but the pacifier seemed to calm her and she took a nap in there long enough for me to take a shower and get dressed. We decided to try it again for the night and she actually did pretty well. We got out one of the sleep sacks to put her in since she wasn't bundled up tight and stuck that pacifier in when she started to stir. That helped her go down for her first round and she didn't need the pacifier at all for the stretch in the middle of the night. She seems happy to not be swaddled but she does wake herself up more frequently when her arms are free to flail. The baby books say they get used to having their arms and legs free to roam at about two months, so hopefully we're on our way to her not waking herself up everytime an arm moves!

This past weekend also brought us our first real extended outting. Andy and I both desperately needed haricuts so we went to one of the quick places and took turns with Sara while we got our hair cut. I was able to feed her in the car while Andy finished up and then we headed down to Rice Village to eat lunch and go to A Woman's Work. A Woman's Work is a great store for moms and babies - especially for nursing supplies and I needed to get some nursing bras now that my milk supply is well established. Sara slept most of the time in her stroller and they even had chairs and magazines for dads to wait in. Lastly we hit the grocery store briefly on our way home to get a few things. Andy went in to shop and I changed and fed Sara in the car again. The one bad thing about traveling is that the carseat seems to promote pooping and the way she fits in the seat causes her to blow out her diaper out her back every time. Luckily I've been smart enough to remember outfit changes each time we've left the house because we've needed one each time she has been in the car!

It was so nice to be able to leave the house for the whole afternoon and be outside for a bit. It's fun to go out as a family too - I can't wait for Sara to start getting interested in her surroundings and really enjoy going to new places.

Hope everyone is having a good week - Sara goes back to the doctor tomorrow for her one month checkup so we'll find out how much our little chunker weighs now. I'm betting over 8 pounds for sure as much as she's eating! I know she has to get one shot tomorrow, which I'm not looking forward to. Think happy thoughts for Sara and hopefully the shot won't hurt too much.

Until next time,

Andy, Valarie, and Sara

PS - Thanks for the comments on the blog - it's fun to see who's looking at the site and have some comments to read!