A Scary Lesson Learned...

Here's Lauren enjoying her new Jumperoo that I borrowed from her daycare provider. It's blurry because I couldn't get her to stop jumping long enough to take a picture :)
This afternoon I had a terrifying wake-up call that could have ended very tragically. I've been letting Lauren sleep with her baby blankie that she's becoming attached to. We take it with us in the car to comfort her and she likes to snuggle with it in her crib at naptime and bedtime. When I put her down for her nap this afternoon, she pulled it close to herself and was fussing a little when I left the room (that's normal behavior for her lately). I listened on the baby monitor while she fussed for about five minutes. Then she suddenly started screaming some of the sharpest, shrillest screams I've ever heard. I RAN down the hall and into her room, where I found her writhing around with her blankie wrapped tightly around her head covering her eyes, nose and mouth. I grabbed her while yanking the blanket off and then collapsed into her rocking chair to rock and soothe her (while I was shaking and trembling as I pictured what could have happened if I hadn't heard her screams). So, if you read this blog and have a baby or know somebody who does....please, please, please remember that even older babies who seem able to push things away from their face and push their face away from the mattress can still get wrapped up in a blanket and struggle to breathe. I was naive to think that Lauren was no longer at risk of suffocating in bed since she can roll and push her blanket away if needed. Thank god I learned my lesson and it ended safely.

In other news, we had a fun week together and attended infant/toddler storytime at Barnes & Noble twice. We even got to meet Clifford the Big Red Dog!

We enjoyed a great afternoon at the zoo on Wednesday with Tara C. and her two daughters, Trinity and Camryn. I think the highlight of the trip was when Trinity, who is three, rode on a camel all by herself. Way to go, Trin!

On Friday night, Chad and I bought a baby gate and protective netting to cover the banister railings on our main floor (the spindles are too wide and thus need to be covered). Chad said he wanted to put up orange snow fencing on the banister but I nixed that idea.

Lauren has been waking up twice a night again and so we've decided to take the tough-love approach and no longer feed her if she wakes in the night. Instead, I give her a really long, thorough feeding at bedtime and then Chad has been going in at night to comfort her when she wakes. We're hoping that she'll learn that nighttime isn't for eating, it's for sleeping. She has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday for her 6-month checkup, so I'll talk to the pediatrician to see what else she suggests about this.

Tomorrow we are having Lauren's 6-month portraits taken and we're going to have a formal family portrait taken as well. Wish us luck. (It took me over 5 hours at the portrait studio when we had her 3-month pictures taken. Ugh.)

Have a good week!

Love,

Mindy and Lauren