Is It Real or Is She Just Using Crib Notes?

We've had a few milestone nights lately: Brigid has been put to sleep in her crib. She's been asleep at the time, so it's not like she's putting herself down to sleep, but she hasn't popped right back up again, either. Monday night, she slept in the crib about 45 minutes; Tuesday night, about an hour; and last night, she spent three hours asleep in her crib before waking up to feed. However, her eating is back to an every-two-hour schedule. I timed it, looking at the clock every time she stirred and cried out. I told myself at 4 a.m. today that it's the only way I'm going to get any sleep at this point, at least until we can gut the computer room and make it her room.

The last couple of mornings Jack has taken her to the lake to tend to the horses and Jenny hasn't been able to sit for us. Yesterday, he brought BB to my office and she sat in her stroller playing with her toys while I finished up. I had to nurse her, too, and that's hard to do as I type. I put her on the floor in the outer office and she crawled around for a minute, happily going from my door to the other door until I went and moved her back again. Her crawling is getting better and stronger and more focused all the time. But it seems to be the means to the end, and that is to get her some place where she can pull herself up to a stand.

Jack brought the high chair down from the attic and cleaned it up best he could for her to sit in while we eat. She plays in it pretty well but gets tired of the whole thing eventually. But at least it gives us time to eat. The chair itself is a little worse for wear. It was new for Margaret, so it has survived the wars of two children's eating habits. We really need a new one because I fear this one may give out and come crashing down if anyone puts too much pressure on the tray while Baby B is sitting in it, but so far, it's holding up.

Speaking of putting pressure on things, Margaret had a melt down yesterday when I pressed the idea of karate. She had homework and had only been home a short time before I told her it would be time to change into her gee. She said she was feeling stressed out with so much to do. I told her if she didn'tgo to karate then, she could go tonight or Saturday but she had to go this week. She wants to take flute, and is very excited to do so, and I think she should take an instrument since she didn't have that option in the parochial school, but she'll also need to practice on top of everything else she has to do. We'll have to work on time management now that school is in full gear and we have an idea of her schedule.

Patricia is loving chorus and I'm glad she opted not to take violin this year. That would be a lot on top of it all. Plus, do we really want to listen to flute AND violin practice??