What Grace is Up To

Grace is such a great baby, as we've said before. Since the last post about her, she stopped sleeping as well and started waking up every 2 or 3 hours to eat during the night. She also started giving us trouble when we tried to put her to bed at night. It got to where we were having to stay up until around 1am every night because she just wouldn't go to sleep. Since our first child was one who wouldn't go to sleep at night until 2am at the earliest, I was starting to get a little worried. Luckily that only lasted for a couple of weeks.

My mom had come out to help us with Grace, so when she went home (about 4 weeks after Grace was born) we were able to put Grace in her crib to sleep at night. This meant we could start trying to put her down earlier. Instead of waiting until about 11pm (when we go to bed), we slowly started pushing her bedtime back. I figured if we start trying earlier and she won't go to sleep, then hopefully we will have her down by midnight. After a week or less of pushing her bedtime back we have finally figured out how to get her to go to sleep pretty much right away, so now she is in bed between 9pm and 10pm. The other good news is that she has started sleeping through the night again the last week and a half. She had a few nights where she was going through a growth spurt, but other than that she's been sleeping great. She'll usually go about 5 or 6 hours, wake up and eat, then go back to sleep for another 4. Twice she has slept super long. Almost 2 weeks ago she slept 10 hours straight and last night she slept 9 hours straight. I guess if you really tire her out she can sleep for a long time.


Other than sleeping well, she is also a pretty good baby when she's awake. She of course will get fussy like a normal baby, but she's at least happy a good part of the time when she is awake. This is a huge change from James, who was pretty much fussing non-stop (probably because he would only sleep around 10 hours total a day). She has been talking more lately and smiling more. She also has a very strong neck. From about 2 weeks old she started holding her head up while I was burping her. You still have to be a little careful with her neck, but not nearly as much as I would have expected. She loves to look over your shoulder with her little head sticking out. This is her at about 3 weeks old.


This is at almost 4 weeks.


I know that I mentioned before that she hates being cold, that's still very much true. She has gotten better about burping. She used to scream her head off when a burp was coming up, now they don't really bother her. She loves baths! No matter how fussy she sometimes gets before bath time, she'll always be super calm during the bath. One funny thing about her is that when she takes a bottle it has to be pretty warm. If it starts to cool down, she won't take it. We've discovered that if she goofs around with the nipple and won't start drinking the bottle, it's almost always because it isn't warm enough to her liking. I guess I find that quite funny because James never really cared all that much. Well, I don't want to bore you too much. Just wanted to share how great this second kid has been so far :)


Here are a few videos of Grace. This first one is of James holding his little sister:


This is Grace on her changing table


Finally, this is James playing with Grace (the best way he can with such a small baby)