Faking it?

 

Gabrielle, when removed from Kristin's arms will begin whining immediately and then after a minute or two will burst into tears. She seems legitimately upset, but if you return her to Kristin's arms, she'll stop crying immediately. Sometimes she even smiles and coos just a second or two after being reunited.

I think she's already learning how to run the show :) 

Gaby's First Christmas

Gaby is deep in the troughs of a profound mommy addiction at the moment. She can't be away from her for more than a minute or two at the most before bursting into tears which absolutely will not stop until Kristin returns.

That has been the key theme of the holiday season for Gaby this year, and it's tough on both Gaby and Kristin. It started about a week ago and seems to be getting worse by the day. I'm hoping it fades before Kristin and I take our 3 day vacation around New Years.

Flying in late on Christmas eve didn't help either. Gaby had a hard time adjusting to the strange bed, and kept Kristin up most of the night. Heading into Christmas morning, both Kristin and Gaby were completely sleepless.

The good news is that when she is with mommy, she is cheerful and bubbly. She had a really good time on Christmas day. She got a stuffed bird, an Angelina Ballerina doll, a bracelet from Sue and of course JoJo the Giraffe. As would any self-respecting 8 month old, she ritualistically inserted each gift into her mouth. I think that she found that very satisfying.

We are looking forward to Hanukkah with her in Florida next weekend.

They are so different

It's 11:30 and Gaby just woke up. We usually let her cry for a few minutes and she often falls back aleep. She is a little sick now though (slight cold) and so I picked her up pretty much right away. I fed her a bottle and was stuck by how different she is from Annabel.

Gabs is so quiet when whe wakes up. She hardly cries, its sort of more like a whine, and then when you go in, she stops right away. She is slow and gentle when you pick her up. Annabel would often kick and be cranky. Gaby wants to be soothed and seems happy to go back to sleep I put her back down half-awake and then said night night and left. As I was walking out, I saw her roll over on her side and cuddle her blanket up to her. It was so cute!

Kristin and the girls

Waiting to eat lunch in San Bruno.

I can crawl!

It's not quite official, but gabs can wriggle her way to whatever toy catches her attention. Its still a combination of rolling, scooting and pullingbut I think it qualifies as a very early form of crawling. Kristin and Rick agree.

Halloween Chicken

We got the chicken costume from Maryann who had used it for her daughter Lily last year. It was homemade, with a white feather boa for feathers and yellow dish gloves for the chicken feet. Somehow Gabs kept kicking the feet off though, and we had to pluck the feathers because they were itching her, so it quickly became just a white onesy with a red chicken head thing (what is that called, a chicken crest?).

happiest baby

Gaby is such a happy baby. She squeals and squeals and laughs all the time. I love her deep belly laughs. She thinks Annabel is especially funny. The other day Annabel was pretending to fluff the pillows like her mom, and as she's pounding on the pillows, Gaby is laughing and laughing at her. This just made Annabel fluff with more intensity and Gaby laughed even harder.

Today Gaby rediscovered herself in the mirror and thought she was pretty funny. She kept grabbing and kicking and laughing. I was worried she would hurt herself as she tried to launch into her own image in the mirror.

Gabs can roll over!

She is doing it pretty regularly now in both directions. She loves it. She will roll over, squeel and then roll back over to where she started.

solids

Gaby ate her first solids today. We tried some rice serial last week, but she wouldn't go for it. Today, Kristin added a little applesauce and that seemed to do the trick. I guess she is an applesauce girl...

sleep training

Gabby has been a relatively easy baby. She has slept well and eaten well and is generally pretty content. Up until about three weeks ago...

Then she started waking up every two hours or so and we were back in a special sort of hell that they reserve for new parents where everyone has a short fuse and are practically catatonic with sleeploss.

We hired a sleep expert (a little jewish gandma named Vivian Sonnenberg) who told us the following:

1. She needs to sleep on her tummy, not her back
2. She can't be up for more than two hours during the day without a nap
3. She must always nap in her crib
4. She must be put down awake and left to fall asleep in her crib on her own during her naps
5. No pacifiers
6. She should be put down for the night at about 6:30
7. She must be fed before she is put down
8. We should let her cry for up to an hour before going in to feed her

She cried for almost an hour the first time, and then a few times for a half hour. Now she sleeps pretty regularly from 6:30pm to about 7:00am, and we have our easy baby back. Amazing!

Gabrielle is Born!

Gabrielle Grace Goldman is born today. 6 pounds, 10 ounces, 21 inches long.