16 Weeks

Well, she may be 16 weeks old, but she's not 4 months until 10/22! I keep telling myself that so that I can try to slow down time. It's not working. She's thinking she's a big girl these days. She's grabbing toys with her hands and trying to get everything in her mouth - her hands are there most of the time! She's talking up a storm and is as cute as ever.

Not a lot has happened this week, which is sort of how I like it. It's nice to have our days relaxed and slow. We've been working on sleep a lot lately. Like I think I mentioned earlier, she's been waking up after just a few minutes of sleep and cycling like that off and on for a few hours. I'm VERY happy to say that we broke that bad habit. I'm not a believer of "cry it out," so I did my own method based on my behavior modification training. I knew it would come in handy sometime! :) When she cried we would wait a minute to see if she was actually awake or just crying in her sleep. If she was really awake we would go in and put her passy back in her mouth and walk out. We would ONLY pick her up if she was really hysterical, which only happened a few times. Within a few days she was over it. Naps have been another story. Some days she still thinks she only needs to sleep for 30 minutes, when I KNOW she needs a good 2 hours or more. In fact, right now she's in the middle of a 2 1/2 hour nap and going strong. We're getting there! She's also learned to wake up and "summon" us by talking - the cutest thing in the world!!

I always have great and happy things to say about Emma. It's not because I'm sugar coating her, it's because she really is great and happy....most of the time. We have had one struggle that has been ongoing since she was born. She HATES the car seat. She has hated it since day 2 (day 1 she slept through - the car ride home from the hospital). She screams almost everytime we go anywhere. When I say she screams, I mean she screams until she has to stop to catch her breath, turns red, chokes, and occasionally falls asleep (though those days are nearly over). She has screamed for over 30 minutes at times. The bad thing is that there is NOTHING I can do. It's taken me 4 months to really accept that. You see, when she was tiny I would pull over, nurse her in the back seat, change her diaper, do whatever I could think of that could possibly be wrong. It never helped. As soon as she got back in the car seat, she was screaming again. I've tried putting her in there asleep - she wakes up. Putting her in there when it's nap time - she screams even more uncontrollably. I've tried toys (she's not quite to the point of holding a toy to entertain herself), the pacifier, 3 car seats now, and Baby Einstein videos on Brad's portable DVD player. None of it is the cure all. Music helps some, but only when it's what she wants to listen to (she's PICKY with her music, just like her mommy) and when she's calm enough to hear it. The DVDs help some, but not for long. We can typically make it 10 minutes or so if she's very well rested, well fed, and all is right with the stars and their alignment. It doesn't even help if one of us sits in the back seat to entertain her. Heck, my mom, the living interactive toy, sat in the back seat with her on the way to the park the other day and she screamed as loud as ever. I honestly don't know what else I can do. It has weighed on my heart heavily for 4 months, and it seems to have gotten worse lately. In my mind I know that there's nothing that I can do, it doesn't hurt her to cry, and that I need to focus completely on driving. BUT....it's SO hard with the love of your life screaming hysterically in the backseat.

I went so far as to take her to the pediatrician this week. Her check-up is in 2 weeks. She was just not quite herself with her sleep stuff going on, all the yelling in the car. My guess was an ear infection. The culprit?? Her attitude. I'm in for it when she hits 2!! The doctor checked her over and she was perfect. She weighs 13 lbs. 14 oz. 75th percentile. Nothing wrong with her. So I have a gorgeous little girl who is sweet as pie 99% of the time and a demon child that 1% of time that she's in the car. What do you do?? Anyone have suggestions?? I'm all ears.

Please don't think that I'm complaining or that I don't love my little girl with everything that I have. I wouldn't trade her, or my time with her, for anything in the world. I just am at a loss when it comes to the car situation. Help!

Please keep us in your prayers next week. I have the surgery to remove my ovarian cyst on next Tuesday. I'm a little nervous, especially because it's the longest I will have been away from Emma, not to mention it's "technically" my first surgery. No pictures to update with, but I figure the videos from a few days ago make up for it ;)