Fourth Time is a Charm

It was about 8 o’clock and I was wondering when Sara was getting home. She normally gets off of work earlier but tonight was different. Baby Michael or Bubby as we call him was fast asleep in his crib while Victoria was asleep in her bed as well. Sara’s husband Michael was doing a tour of duty in Poland so they only had a little time to talk on the phone. I figured she was downstairs in the parking lot talking to him on the phone so I thought to leave both of them alone. I was finishing up cleaning the dishes and fixing up the living room before I can jump in the shower and go to bed. Sara rushed into the apartment with tears in her eyes, holding her cell phone with Michael on the other end. A flood of questions were in my head wondering what was going on between them both. Sara sat down and asked me to keep an open mind. I took a deep breath knowing this is going to hit me like a ton of bricks. I could see Sara sitting with her head in her hands crying while Michael stayed silent on the phone. “Mom, I’m pregnant.” She spoke to me with tears in her eyes. I remained silent for a moment. Now remember she’s married. Its not exactly an unwed pregnancy but this was a surprise to us all, especially me. I remember holding onto the couch like I’m falling through a black hole of ‘what ifs’. Our lives were getting a bit back to normal. Bubby was almost done with formula and both the kids were growing up. For some God-forsaken reason, I guess you can say that I was trying to be a consoling, loving mother, I tried to reassure both Sara and Michael that we will get through this together as a family. We have a future blessing that is about to enter our lives so we need to be prepared.

Now I can’t imagine a world without my fourth granddaughter Emma Nicole!

https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_br_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=thehipgrandmo-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B088Y1HZGD&asins=B088Y1HZGD&linkId=0743ce2facf1b4f67ded1b736349ee6f&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066C0&bg_color=FFFFFF

12 things I want to show you about my 8 month old grand daughter Victoria Renee

Ok…I didn’t write the 7 things I have learned about my grand daughter Victoria Renee. BUT she has made some improvements during the 7 month and I would love to show you the pictures instead. Today is Victoria’s 8^th month of life. I want to show you now that she is starting to leave the infant world and go straight to becoming a little kid. Its hard to believe that my grand daughter isn’t a baby in a bassinet anymore. She is really growing up and I have become closer and closer to the little booger.

We have gone from this:

To this:

Now we are to this:

Somewhere in between 22-25 lbs, she is starting to lunge forward to position herself to crawl. One of these days she will do it and hopefully it will be in my presence. Her mother holds her up in a standing position as she holds on to the coffee table in the living room. She is definitely on her way.

From eating this way:

Kiss the hand of the Queen!

Eventually eating in a high chair:

And finally she is an ol’ pro!

As you know, I am her babysitter while her mother works. There have been times when things are kind of hard keeping her on a schedule but all in all, she is a very easy baby to deal with. I set a schedule for her sleeping and she has grown into it wonderfully.

We have gone from this:

To this:

And at times…..I find her playing in her crib when she is supposed to be in dreamland

She does a lot of things on her own, though.

And she even tries to push herself by doing different things, such as holding the bottle in one hand then switching to the other hand……

She really thinks she is cool. Thats ok because I think she’s an awesome kid. Not a baby but a kid.

Queen Victoria of Crankiness

….And we are back! Its that time again that Victoria is teething. Really. But this time there is something showing up on her lower gum. After I wash my hands, I feel around on her lower gum and I believe I felt a small bump….I wasn’t sure. But throughout every smile, she never whined. Although my daughter was at the end of her seventh month of life, the first tooth (or teeth) that arose were both upper lateral incisors. But that was so long ago. I had forgotten what babies go through during this hard time. I was wondering why Victoria barely slept (or couldn’t stay asleep at night.) Thank goodness there are the two of us (my daughter and myself) taking care of Victoria. When she hears Victoria crying in her crib, she retrieves her while I turn on the pot of water on the stove to warm up her bottle.

We do make a great team. 🙂

Later that night and into the morning hours, my daughter had so much trouble trying to get her to rest. I could hear Victoria whining in the monitor with my daughter rushing through the hall to get to her room. Victoria has scooted up from the bottom of the crib right up to the top. And she’s crying. Between each cry, she chomps her gums like shes eating something. She can’t rest herself. Wanting to sleep in the worse way, Victoria drools and has her fingers in her mouth as to point in the direction of the pain. I don’t know how to make it stop. My daughter administers a bit of baby Tylenol (because I will not be the one to give her meds) but she is still in pain. I then feel the bottom of her gums. There are two (*two*) teeth trying to break the skin of my poor grand daughters gums. I feel like I am doing this all over again, first with my daughter as a baby, now Victoria. As my daughter rocks her to sleep on her shoulder, I have nothing else to do but bring myself to my bed, feeling helpless. There is nothing I can do to remove the pain from my Victoria.

I hate this feeling…..

Never Ending Sleepless Nights

 

There inside a baby’s crib is a beautiful angel…an angel that refuses to sleep at night. How did this happen?? This little creature that I love to cuddle and hold against my body is an active night-owl in sheep’s clothing. There has to be a better way before I go insane. Before my daughter goes insane.

I understand that we couldn’t set a sleep schedule before because she was still a newborn. Thank heavens she has grown enough to step out of that category, or so I thought. It has been a ritual now that I go to bed early, my daughter stays up with Victoria til the wee hours of the morning. Then I wake up about 6 A.M. and let my daughter go to bed while I stay up and have bonding time with Victoria.

Those days might be over….

So now we have to get on task. In order to have this child become a day person (which I am not and never have been), I am going to have to get strict with myself and strict with my grand daughter. Having said that, I have taken the liberty to research on how to keep an infant awake during the day. This will not be a fun ride but I have a feeling that the outcome will benefit us all in the long run.

I understand that I have to be patient with her; it won’t happen overnight. Even if she’s up most of the night, I have to stick with the time my daughter thinks is best. For right now, that time will be 8 A.M. We are instructed to keep the shades open while she attempts to fall back asleep. Gosh that seems so barbaric….she cries in frustration because she can’t get what she needs….or wants. I am going to have to play lively music during the day or even have the television on. Noise is going to happen in our home anyway. She will just have to deal with the fact that we aren’t censoring ourselves anymore.

As the days and/or weeks go on while we are striving for our goal of having her sleep at night rather than the day, we keep in mind that this feat isn’t going to happen overnight. Patience is going to play a big part in this scenario but united with my daughter, we will help my grand daughter through this.

http://www.babycenter.com/404_my-baby-is-up-all-night-and-sleeps-all-day-how-can-i-get-him_3129.bc

One small step for babies…One giant leap for Victoria

There are many things to be thankful of in my life. Victoria is one of them. She is basically the sun in my whole universe. Its unfortunate that I have to ‘pull back’ a little when I hear her whining in her crib while her mother picks her up to hold her. I want to be the one to do that for her.

Realizing that her mother has been up every two hours with little Victoria, I wake up from a comfortable nights sleep. I hear her whine in the crib (she doesn’t have the chance to cry because she is rescued from hunger by her mother) as I let her mother sleep in so I can have that one-on-one time with my beautiful grand daughter. I suppose that is my way of getting what I want. Hee hee!

Victoria is definitely not a crying baby as of yet. She does, however have a whine that sounds a little over-dramatic which is why I refer to her as a ‘drama queen’. And her name is Victoria. How appropriate!

As I tiptoe by her crib with a nice warm bottle of a mixture of breast milk and formula, I turn off the sound machine my bestie gave my grand daughter (to drown out any foreign noises). Awake and alert is what I find! She is trying to turn over. So young! I remember she did that the first week of being home. My mother mentioned that I was constantly doing that as well.

My daughter is sitting up from her pillow and I tell her to “stay in bed, I will change and feed the baby.” My own bonding moment with the Queen!