Between Louise working nights, and me working days, it seems like most of what we do is catch up on sleep. This week was extra busy with our friends Claire and Chad staying with us while they packed up their lives in Santa Cruz to move, like all good friends, to Oregon. We sent them on their way on Saturday, and then went to the Farmer's Market to stock up on summer veggies to make into baby food. This is actually planning ahead, since we haven't started Fiona on real food yet, but as you can see Louise is really looking forward to not being Fiona's sole food source!

Off to work, sleep, repeat,

D

night duty

As you can see fiona is getting better at sitting and can get her feet right into her mouth. But what I don't have a picture of is how rested I feel today. Devon has had a few nights in a row of it. Fiona slept from 10 until 6 straight though last night and the night before she did the same thiong for Devon while I was at work. It is wonderful and even if it a phase she is going through we'll enjoy it while it lasts. Our schedule with me working nights and Devon on Days is a bit odd and we don't see eachother as much as we'd like to but it's not for forever and knowing Fiona is safe in her bed at night makes it possible for me to drive off to work.

I hope that y'all are rested too.

Love
Louise

Finding feet

Hi All, We survived our first week of louise working nights. Luna got the most sleep, Fiona got the second most sleep, follwed by vicki and john, coming in last, louise. But we are all well, Fiona learned to sleep in the crib at her grandparent's house. The first night was rough apparently, the last night was lauded as a good one by John and Vicki.

As you can see Fiona has discovered her feet which is much better at nappy changing time than finding her bum which was her old trick.

Thank you for all your positive thoughts this week, they really must have worked.

Love
Louise

still standing

Fiona is stillenjoying her exersaucer. Sometimes she gets frustrated at her inability to get everything in her mouth the way she want to but it still gives us enough time to prepare a meal or run to the toilet.

We're getting ready for a crazy week next week. Devon is going away for the first time since Fiona was born, and it also happens to be the week when I start working the 11-7 shift at the hospital. John and Vicki are coming to the rescue, or rather we are going there. Fiona and I are moving the show down to Pacific Grove for the better part of the week. They'll look after her on the night shift and I'll try to nap when she does. I know we'll be OK. Devon for his part is looking forward to long stretches of uninterrupted sleep and two handed time in New York.

I'll try to give a mid chaos post but I'm not promising.
Love
Louise

Miss Fancy Pants

Here are the latest digital documentations of the life of Fiona.... The family at a "summer" BBQ here in Santa Cruz (note warm hat on Fiona and my Australian rugby shirt, purchased at a thrift shop in Provo, UT). Then we have Fiona in her new fancy pants, sent by Ken and Betty. Thanks! (the shirt they sent along is still too big, but will soon fit at the rate she is growing).
Most exciting, today Louise got the Exersaucer-Mega at the baby thrift shop (that we call the "used baby store" although I don't think they sell used babies!). Fiona was beyond thrilled, and shrieked with delight, doing 360's in it until she was completely knackered. Which, of course, leads us to the last picture, taken after tanking up on mums milk and passing out with her blanky, last used by me...

love to all, D

limited text again

hi all,
just a few new pictutes (text limited due to fiona)
she had her immunizations and while loud like last time i was not pooed on and we all got more sleep.
one picture is of fiona with a cold greenbean, feels nice on the gums, another watching devon and his wine, and another showing off her sitting prowess.

FOUR MONTHS!!!

Ther has been a little break in the blogging as we have been trying to work, parent, eat and sleep, but here's an update on fiona on her four month day:



Fiona is still as wonderful as ever. She is still a little challenged in the rolling over department but we are working on that. She can sit up with some pillows for help and she has a highchair that helps her stay upright too. The highchair also gives us the ability to eat two handed meals again which is nice. She still has the occasional night when she wants to hang out at 3:30 rather than sleep until morning but we are doing well in the sleep department. She smiles, giggles, grabs things and puts them in her mouth, she watches things going on around her, she likes colourful things rather than black and white. She has been going for lots of jogs with Devon in her stroller and lots of walks with her mum. We are so happy to have her these four months have been a joy even with the rough parts. Speaking of rough parts she has another visit to the doctor for immunizations tomorrow. This time we'll premedicate her with tylenol and make sure that we are prepared with a bottle of wine for our own relief.

Looking Out

This week's milestone, facing forward in the stroller rather than sitting in her infant carrier looking backwards.

Also a couple of pictures of fiona cgewing her hand and hanging with her mum.
love
louise

Turning over

Well until recently I though that fiona might be lagging in the turning over department. Today she proved that she knows what to do, she just needs a little help geting started. I'm sure once she realizes how much fun she can have when she is in control of her own prone vs supine position she will practice a bit more. She was hanging out naked in the sun this morning to help her with a bit of unsightly nappy rash. I'm still working out how to treat it the best and trying to whittle away reasons for it. It makes me feel guilty every time I see a red patch. Enjoy the photos.
Love
Louise

kookaburra

This is Fiona playing with the kookaburra her uncle Chris gave her. It laughs and she thinks it's funny.

A Day at the Beach

Hi all,
Just wanted to show you the pictures from this morning's outing to Davenport beach. Fiona and I hung out on the beach, Devon went kayak surfing, Luna shuttled between the water and chasing rabbits, Eventually fiona needed a feed and fell asleep on the beach blanket. Probably this sort of outing will be more interesting for her when she can run in the sand or build a sandcastle, but it was a beautiful day.
Love
Louise

daddy-daughter time

Devon here, taking a break from holding Fiona since she is sleeping now. Louise has started work, which means I am taking some days and afternoons off to watch Fiona. Today I came home at 2, Louise walked out the door and won't come home until 11:30. I put Fiona in her stoller and walked all the way down to the lighthouse to watch the fantastic surf... Tomorrow morning I'll sneak out while Louise and Fiona are still sleeping and get in the water myself!

Gotta go, baby wiggling.

just a few

Through the night

It has been two nights in a row now when we have woken up in the morning to say, " Did we get up in the night?"

Fiona has slept through the night 11:00-5:30 for two nights in a row. It seems like a good pattern but I don't want to jinx it. Hopefully she'll keep it up because our lives are getting a bit more complicated this week as I start work. We may all need a bit of extra sleep around here.
Love
Louise

Camping With Fiona

To celebrate Fiona’s arrival at the ripe ld age of three months we went on a camping trip. Her first, our first as parents. All off us loaded into the truck, dog included and set off for the mountains. Devon was going to squeeze in some kayaking and I was just going to see if it could be done.

We had a couple of errands to do on the way. We wanted to pick up a baby carrier at a baby store on the way. It was stinking hot in the valley as we found our way to a huge baby store we found a scrap of shade in the parking lot for Luna and then ran into the store out of the heat. We found the carriers and were happily comparing models when we looked down at our smiling child to see that she was kicking around in a puddle of her own poo. So we chose the carrier we were holding darted through the checkout and had our first tailgate nappy change.

Strapped back into the truck we continued to the mountains and seven hours later (the drive home only took us 4 ½ hours) found a lovely camping site overlooking the river Fiona really did well in the truck for all that time. We stopped for a couple of feeds along the way and Fiona entertained herself with toys and sleep most of the way.

Our first nights in our tent with Fiona were fine. She slept well and didn’t mind the change of scenery.

Next day rather than the big hikes that Luna and I usually do we hung around camp and went on a couple of short walks while Devon kayaked. We waved at him when he went by but I don’t’ think that Fiona could see that far.

Other camping feats, Fiona learned to nap in the back of the truck and she had her first taste of mountaineering with Devon and I on a short but high altitude trail. We pointed out the snow that Luna enjoyed to her, but again I don’t think that she could see that far So it was a taste of our previous life flavoured with the joy of having Fiona along with us.

Love Louise

Holding On

Hi Everyone,
Well, Fiona has been overcome with the need to put things in her mouth. She's still not very good at it. The hand-mouth coordination is quite good but the hand- thing coordination is still poor. This ball was an easy catch. She seemed to have no difficulty getting it in her grabby little hands, but then she was frustrated because it was a little on the large size to put in her mouth.
As you can see she's still sitting up with the help of pillows. She prefers to sit or stand, neither of which she can do on her own, so like the suckers that we are we indulge her and prop her up.

We're going to go camping this weekend. First time for Fiona and a little daunting for us. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to document the event. Hopefully the first of many wonderful adventures.

Love
Louise

Giggling

Sorry for the delay in post for all you who have been waiting.

This weekend Fiona hit a new milestone. She giggled. It was marvelous. I don't know whether it is inate (I think she did it once when she was sleeping at about three weeks old) or she picked it up from us but it was wonderful, and had Devon making all sorts of motions for her to keep it up. She giggled at Devon first and then the next day did it at a drink can. I don't know what this means about her sense of humour.

love
louise

Dummy Love

This picture doesn't really do justice as to how Fiona feels about her dummy. We have 5 of them:
one white, two green, one pink (shown), one blue. We usually only know where one of them is at any given point in time. I think that the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle left out the part about knowing where two dummies were at the same time. They were so caught up talking about particles that they didn't get specific.

Anyway, back to Fiona. When she is upset the dummy usually fixes the problem. If she is still upset she gets, swaddled, her nappy changed, cuddled, fed, bounced, sung to, and cried back at*-- so as to achieve a peaceful baby state again.

*Not necessarily in that order

Drool

Devon and Fiona can expect to see a bit more of louise around as she has finished nursing school and passed her board exams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







Maybe this will give me more time to wipe up Fiona's Drool

Love
Louise

All of us here send a birthday hug out to Fiona's Uncle Jonathon in Melbourne.

We're back

It's been a bit crazy around here. I haven't been able to post for a while because I've been either studying or attending to Fiona. I took my board exam yesterday, so now I can put away the books that I have been tied to for a long time. For those of you who have been looking forward to more Fiona Pictures...here they are.

The picture of her bed shows that we have moved her cardboard box that she sleeps in into her bed and so she sleeps there now still in her box. She is still sleeping well, though sometimes she wakes up and wants her dummy (pacifier) back in her mouth. We are waiting for her to learn to do that on her own and will adjust her allowance accordingly when that happens.

Fiona and her book is an illustration of just how advanced she is as a reader. Some of her friends in New York sent it to her. I did get her a copy of Where the Wild Things Are and read it too her. She looked at the pictures and I dont' think she kept up with the plot, but it was fun for me to get to read it to her. I still remember it by heard from reading it to Chris and Alex years ago.

Thank you for all your lovely comments by the way. I love to see that people actually look at this.
Love
Louise

We're back

It's been a bit crazy around here. I haven't been able to post for a while because I've been either studying or attending to Fiona. I took my board exam yesterday, so now I can put away the books that I have been tied to for a long time. For those of you who have been looking forward to more Fiona Pictures...here they are.

The picture of her bed shows that we have moved her cardboard box that she sleeps in into her bed and so she sleeps there now still in her box. She is still sleeping well, though sometimes she wakes up and wants her dummy (pacifier) back in her mouth. We are waiting for her to learn to do that on her own and will adjust her allowance accordingly when that happens.

Fiona and her book is an illustration of just how advanced she is as a reader. Some of her friends in New York sent it to her. I did get her a copy of Where the Wild Things Are and read it too her. She looked at the pictures and I dont' think she kept up with the plot, but it was fun for me to get to read it to her. I still remember it by heard from reading it to Chris and Alex years ago.

Thank you for all your lovely comments by the way. I love to see that people actually look at this.
Love
Louise

Sleep-Sleep-Sleepin!

Yo, Devon here,
An event this big requires that I add my first note to this blog-- Fiona slept though the night! And by "through the night", I'm talkin' passed out before 10 and didn't move until we got worried and woke her up to feed at 6am. Do the math, thats 8 hours of blissful silence. She didn't even seem particularly anxious to wake up! Now we (the parents) are giddy with wakefullness, well at least I am. Louise and Fiona are fed and changed and back asleep, while I with my coffee am fired up and ready to go. I doubt this will be repeated on a daily basis, but just knowing that it is possible occasionally is pretty great.