Close Call

Our little escape artist has figured out how to break out of her swaddle at night. I don't think she really means to, but she is strong enough now that if the swaddle isn't really tight and well secured she is able to bust it open. There were a couple of nights in a row where she woke up at 1am and 5am. That wasn't very fun after having her sleep 9-11 hours straight the past few weeks. When she woke up, though, I would just reswaddle her and give her her pacifier and she was happy to fall back asleep without feeding. This was a bit scary because it made me face my fear of the day that she outgrows her swaddle....oh my I don't even want to think about it. She will usually nap just fine during the day without the swaddle, but to get her to sleep at night for longer than a few hours she really needs it! I recently starting hanging out with another young mom in our neighborhood who has a little boy 11 months older than Gabi. She said that he had to sleep swaddled as well and that she started to panic when he outgrew it. She told me that they made size large swaddles and that that held him until he was about 6 months old (and he was a big boy too). I checked our swaddle and sure enough, it's a size small. Nick, Gabi, and I went shopping today and picked up a new (green!) size large swaddle. The best $10 we ever spent!

Gabi and I went to Nick's cousin's baby shower this weekend and she behaved very well. She was awake and smiley at the beginning while everyone was mingling, sat happily in her carseat and looked around while I ate, fell asleep on my shoulder as the mom-to-be opened all of her gifts, and then woke back up to show off some more smiles to everyone before we left. Later that night she had a babysitter while Nick and I met some friends for drinks and wings in East Lansing and then went to the State game. That was a fun night out and only the second time we really left her with a babysitter. She does pretty well with just about anyone, so I look forward to being able to leave her on a more regular basis so I can have nights out with the hubby!

Gabi has been holding her head up much better in the past few days (tummy time is still usually a disaster but if you sit her up she will hold her head up pretty well) so Nick thought he should put together her jumper and see it she could play in that yet. He got it together and it is huge! We couldn't even get the darn thing out of her room without partially disassembling it! And no, Gabi cannot play in it yet...her feet are still a good 6 inches off of the floor and her little body fills out about a quarter of the little seat holder. That is still a good couple of months out depending on if she has a big growth spurt or stays on the teeny side. Oh well! She is staying busy with toys that move lately. Before she was very interested in just looking at toys but now all of a sudden she wants them to wiggle. Nick found this out the hard way by bouncing her bouncy seat and making the animals on it move around. When he stopped she screamed bloody murder until he started bouncing it again - then she would kick her little legs as fast as she could and stare at those

animals wiggling for a good hour or so!