Klaudia - 3 months 1 week

Witching Hours

Almost every night (I'd say 6 out of 7 in a week), Klaudia and the rest of us go through witching hours. The witching hours usually start at around 5pm and go until the little one falls asleep - 9-9.30pm. They consist of her crying her little eyes out and our trying to calm her down. These are our ways of dealing with the situation:

• Nursing helps, but try to nurse for more than 4 hours!
  
• Walking with her in a stroller - wonderful, but it's been way too cold in the evenings recently
• She LOVES being carried in the upright position, but again Len and I both get tired after a few minutes (she weighs 16 pounds after all!)
  
• Thank goodness for Baby Bjorn!!! Len can carry her in it for a couple of hours - he loves it, she loves it, and everyone is happy. She usually falls asleep when Len gets on the bed and jumps with her while watching TV. She's out within 20 minutes.
  

Klaudia's Recent Milestones

Rolling over last week was huge but there are a few other things that our little pumpkin needs to get credit for.

• 3 weeks - started noticing us, her roommates
  
• 4 weeks - started smiling (unconsciously to mommy during nursing; first time meaningfully to daddy)
  
• 8 weeks - slept for 8 hours at night (first time; then switched to sleeping 4-6 hours at a time)
• 3 months - started "talking", especially when in bed after waking up in the morning (her favorite word: owwwwuuu)
• 3 months 1 week - started holding her head on her own
  
• 3.5 months - slept for 9 hours at night ; woke up only once for feeding (caught up with waking up the following night - 6 times!!!)
• 3.5 months - rolled over from her belly to her back
• 3.5 months - started sitting with support
• 3.5 months - started playing with her toes
  

Things I Learned...

While staying at home, I learned

• I'm addicted to my laptop (I turn it on before having my coffee in the morning)
  
• I love Ellen DeGeneres Show (I try to watch it only when Klaudia is taking her afternoon nap, nursing or not needing mama's entertaining - only a few times a week)
  
• I don't like Oprah's show - way too many commercials
• The mail person comes at different times every day (wouldn't it be easier to follow one schedule?)
• I love sleeping in (I used to be a morning person, but if Klaudia doesn't wake up, I'm able to stay in bed until 10.30am)
• Our neighbor upstairs works 5 days a week; the one downstairs either died or moved out.
• Some young people in our apartment building either take days off from work or don't work during the week because they stay at the pool all day long.
• There is no difference between Monday and Wednesday (my work days) and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (my off days). Weekends are different because Ellen is not on on those days.
  

Staying Home vs. Going Back to Work

Before getting pregnant and even during my pregnancy I was convinced that I'd be back at work in no time. I was planning on the natural birth after which you're supposed to be on your feet the same day. I thought a couple of weeks of rest would be enough. I wasn't sure what I'd do with our munchkin but I thought that finding child care would not be a big deal (it's hard for me to write this realizing how naive I was).

Little did I know my way of thinking would change drastically from the moment I saw HER. Thank goodness my work allowed me to stay home for 6 weeks, and now I'm able to work only twice a week in the evenings. Even then leaving K at home is a heartbreaking event but knowing that she stays with daddy (not a stranger) helps a lot.

I used to be scared that there would be nothing to do when staying at home all day with a little baby. I used to babysit a lot but all my kids were at least 4 years of age, and playing with them was pure joy. How do you play with one that doesn't walk and talk?

First of all, there is so much to do during the day that we run out of time. There are days when I fail to take her out for a walk just because the evening is here before we know it. Second of all, Klaudia is such an easy baby to take care of; she doesn't need much to be entertained. Third, something that I didn't realize before: raising a child is a very natural thing. I'm not saying it's easy, but we learn it as we go. The ideas of what to do and how to do it come naturally. The feeling called LOVE has a lot to do with it, plus discussions with friends who have kids, and babycenter.com are helpful. Finally, spending time with my little pumpkin pie is so fulfilling that I would not exchange it for anything else. I LOVE BEING A MAMA!

The Name of Our Blog

We've had this blog for a while now, waited for ever to make the first post, and now we're still debating on what we should name it. We've changed its name a few times within the last week and still can't decide on one. What do you think?

Vote Now!

What should our blog's name be?
	Hey's Household
	Our Bug's Life
	Klauduszek
	Klaudia's Korner
pollcode.com free polls

Getting Bigger

Klaudia at 2 weeks of age when she still looked somewhat lean.



Klaudia 3 months later.