We had a nice Fourth of July, spent pigging out in White Center (Oops! I mean Highland Park) with the Hesses Minus Thyrza. We brought fruit salad, corn on the cob, freshly baked pies made from the pie cherry tree in our front yard, and Tillamook Vanilla Bean ice cream (the finest in pie toppings). The Hesses Minus Thyrza provided boiled crabs and grilled clams and chicken sausage and blue cheese potato salad and an apple pie and chips galore and I’m sure I’ve forgotten something in this outrageous feast. It was great times eating and talking and passing Zoey around and watching Zoey stare at all the cool stuff on the walls and ceiling of Thyrza’s oh-so-convenient-for-nursing-and-diaper-changing bedroom.
Yesterday is a blur, because last night was one of the worst nights ever for Zoey’s sleeping. She was up every hour. This is not so unusual, except that the 3 or so hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep were quite missing from the beginning. Every hour.
Today we went up to Lynnwood to visit We ‘r’ Babies and pick up a new mattress for the crib. We have the crib bungee-corded to the bedframe, sidecar-style, but previously Zoey hated to sleep in it because the saggy mattress wouldn’t allow her to get comfortable or roll onto her side. Not so any more. The crib mattress we got today is firmer than our bed’s super firm Englander mattress, and so far it seems to be working much better for Li’l Z. Before dinner tonight I glanced in the bedroom and found Zoey napping in her crib and Rona napping on the bed next to her, and I almost cried in relief. Oh, but are we ever sleep-deprived, my friends. Last night I had just a taste of what Rona has been going through (I usually don’t wake up very easily) and let me tell you–waking up every hour all night long sucks! Rona and Zoey have gone to bed again, and I hope Rona can get a good three to five hours before Zoey needs to eat. Wish us luck!
In other baby news, I found out yesterday that my dear friend Ingrid in Colorado had her baby girl, Penelope Ann, on July 2nd. Portland Jenn sent a photo, so considering how I’m always asked to post baby pictures, here she is! 
July 7th, 2004 at 11:36 am
Oh boy, have I ever been there. Truly. Exactly there.
I don’t know where you are in terms of feeding li’l Z foods of any sort, but when Kate started waking every hour (and her sleep started getting worse just when all of my friends’ babies were getting so much better) getting her on a feeding schedule that included even some watery rice cereal or banana (which she never really liked) or avocado (which she loved and still does) edged her back into sleeping at least a few hours in a row.
Of course, let me know if I’m over-stepping my bounds with the baby feeding advice. It’s meant only in the most loving way, from the persepctive of a mom whose baby didn’t sleep through the night for a year, and who was still in my bed disrupting my sleep when she was three. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, and hope you have a much better experience than I did!
July 7th, 2004 at 11:46 am
We’re not doing food yet, until Zoey meets all of her doc’s criteria: 1) Is 6 months old; 2) Can spit stuff out; 3) Can sit up on her own; 4) Has some teeth, which will cause her digestive system to create new enzymes to deal with the food. There might have been some more, but I think teeth will be the defining moment in our little girl’s path to having yummy sandwiches with Daddy. We’re sad about the wait, in the probably vain hope that she will immediately start sleeping “through the night” once her choppers appear and the rice cereal flies into the hangar on the airplane spoon. As it were. Bring on the advice and personal observations–we can use all the help and hope we can get.