Flailing Arms

A rare event. Grace asleep without being swaddled.

When Ginny was an infant, she hated being swaddled. She would wiggle and squirm until she could get her arms out of her bindings. Then, once out, she would roll onto her side and sleep. She started doing this Houdini act at 2 weeks old. I stopped attempting to swaddle her by the time she was 3 weeks old. There really was no point.

Grace, our charming 4-month-old baby, is nothing like her sister was. She loves being swaddled. She needs it. It calms and soothes her. Ginny used a pacifier to sooth herself, but Grace won't take a pacifier at all, much less suck on her thumb. So, swaddling it is.

I wish that I could get away with no longer swaddling her. I can't. If she is not swaddled at bedtime, she starts to flail her arms about and wakes herself up, every time. I keep trying, but it has yet to work.

The problem is that we are beginning to running into issues. Grace is a big baby. The swaddling blankets are getting smaller and smaller, making it more difficult to achieve a tight swaddle. Most baby stores sell the product Swaddle Me, but they only work on babies up to 20 pounds. Grace is very nearly 20 pounds, if not that weight already.

Hopefully, someday soon, she will either learn how to fall asleep without flailing her arms or how to sleep through the flailing arms. Maybe. I hope. Sigh.

Wordless Wednesday: The Toddler Tornado

There is nothing quite like the way a toddler can make a mess. In only a few short months, I will have 2 toddlers. I can only imagine how bad the mess will be then.

My clean, picked up living room! How it is "supposed" to look.

Another angle of my clean living room.

20-30 minutes after Tornado Ginny came into the living room.

Another picture of the effects of my toddler tornado.

I'll have to ask my husband,a meteorologist for the NWS, where this mess sits on the Fujita scale...merely an F1 or could it be an F3?

Peanut Butter as a Styling Gel

My toddler has never enjoyed it when I play with her hair or attempt to style it. Ginny's hair has lots of curls and wave. Combing her hair merely untangles it; it doesn't control it or make it look nice. Her hair has also reached that milestone of growing out where her bangs get in her face. My solution, particularly when we are going to be out in public, is to pull it back. Sometimes I wonder why I even attempt this feat. Often, whatever I do disappears in a matter of minutes.

Her hair can turn into a mess so quick that I am convinced that strangers at stores or church believe that I do not take care of my child. She often looks like such a ragamuffin with that mop of hair. Part of the problem is she loves to play by rubbing her head on objects. Obviously, Ginny does not make it easy for me.

Ginny after cleaning the peanut butter out of her hair!
She really looks way too pleased with herself.

Today she decided to give me a new challenge. She took things a bit further. After she woke and I got her dressed, I combed out her hair. Then, I pulled back the front of it and put a hair clip. We then went to the kitchen to eat. For breakfast, I gave her waffles with peanut butter and a sippy cup of milk. She adores this breakfast treat.

After the events of this morning, though, it may be her last time eating anything with peanut butter. For some reason, unknown to me, she decided to run her sticky peanut butter fingers through her hair...repeatedly. Sigh. I kept telling her to stop, but she couldn't understand what the problem was and continued. Her hair looked like a peanut buttery mess. Out came the wipes once breakfast was done, not for her face, but her hair.  I will say this, after having the peanut butter in her hair, it stayed in place.

At least I don't have to worry about this issue with Grace.  She barely has any hair. Then again, she is only 12-weeks-old and doesn't eat solids.