Cookin' up Baby #2

Baby #2 is on the way! Jorge and I are so excited to be having another baby, but these last couple of months have been rough. Did you know that during the first trimester your hormones double every 48 hours? That explains why you feel so awful. The day after I stopped working the exhaustion and nausea kicked in, and they've been in full-swing, all day long. The nausea actually gets worse as the day goes on, so the morning is my best time, once I've eaten. I've been taking a lot of naps with Elena, thank goodness! And Jorge has been super helpful, since some days I'm useless for taking care of the house. I'm so happy that people finally know, so that I can share my excitement with everyone.

It's different this time around, though, because we stay so busy with Elena Rose. But we enjoy it so much; she's a little person with so much personality, and she's so loveable!

We read (usually the same books over and over)We cuddleWe playWe talkWe paintWe swimWe make playdoughThen we play with itWe dancePhew! I try to do a lot with Elena, even when I'm not feeling that good. I can't wait to move into the second trimester and feel a little better.

Sleep Training

We started sleep training! I still bring her to bed with me when she wakes during the night, but we're helping her learn to fall asleep on her own. We're not working on naps yet, but we'll get there soon. Gotta start somewhere, right? So I've been getting her ready for bed after bathtime, then I sit with her in the rocking chair in the nursery and read her a bedtime story, with the sound machine and her lullaby music on. I like to read her Goodnight Moon because it's super short, all about going to bed, and I use a really soft tone and it seems to relax her. Then I turn off the light with no nightlight so it's almost pitch black, and I nurse her. Then she's super sleepy but not asleep and I give her a pacifier and put her in her crib. (We used to have to swaddle her to move her from the couch to her crib without waking her, especially after we lowered her crib mattress). She loves soft blankets, the fuzzy ones, and always holds them on her face to soothe herself, so after putting her in her crib I hand her a fuzzy blanket and she cuddles with it. The first two nights she held the blanket to her face and passed out, without even a whine. Then last night she was a little more awake and she fussed, but didn't cry. She sat up a few times and I didn't stop her because I didn't want a power struggle, so I would let her sit for a few seconds and fuss, then I would reassure her and lay her on her back and hand her the blanket. After about 5-10 minutes she fell asleep. Then tonight she just cuddled with her blanket and fell asleep right away. Later I will start putting her in there when she's more awake, and also working on it during the day for napping. So I think this is going very well, maybe because we waited awhile to start it.