10/16/06 Three in a car

Today I picked Gabriel and Julian up from Tonya's with Katrina, and put all three of them in the car for the first time! Then took them home and had all three alone for about an hour while I prepared dinner. Fortunately, Katrina slept through all of that. Still, it was a momentous occasion.

The night report: so-so. We had a few hours of waking up soon after going to sleep, lots of crying. From 12pm - 1am, I danced her around the living room, and she calmed down for brief periods during that, but eventually wouldn't be consoled at all. Then I tried (again) lying down with her and giving her the pacifier, and she settled down after a while. I fell asleep too, but not comfortably, and didn't really get to stretch out and sleep until 3:30am, when I moved her to the bassinet.

One thing I'm doing very differently is not letting the baby sleep all day. I wake Katrina up every 2-3 hours to nurse (if she doesn't wake up herself) during the day. The intent is to coax her long stretches of sleep to be at night, but I'm finding other benefits too. It gives me little stretches of the day when I can be fairly confident she'll sleep, such as if I have to take another kid to the pediatrician, or prepare dinner. (Note that I don't say "make" dinner, because my wonderful mom friends have been showering us with premade homemade meals!)

Tonya commented today that Katrina has such a serious look about her. I know exactly what she means, and it's almost eerie. Katrina's facial expressions -- the studious furrowed brow, the focus, the pout, the whistle-face, and the attraction to ceiling fans -- all carbon copies of her older older brother. She doesn't do these things nearly as long as Gabriel did, in fact happy alert times with me are pretty short and rare, but she's still so much like Gabriel it's a little nerve-wracking!

Two baths in a row without any significant crying, except the getting in and out part. Now that I can really immerse her, she likes it when I go so far as to take her out of the bath seat and just float her around the water. Good, 'cause we're a water family around here.

10/16/06