You know how babies will sometimes just go and go and go and then, suddenly drop off to sleep without warning.  That pretty much sums up bedtime tonight.  Dora hasn’t been sleeping all that well and basically, that means that I’ve not been sleeping all that well.  At first I thought she was teething (and maybe she was).  Then I was sure she wasn’t getting enough to eat during the day (toddlers often don’t) and that she was compensating at night (and maybe she was).  Now I am camping on a completely different theory:  she’s lonely.  Even though her crib is in the same room with Will and I, this highly social creature wakes up and in her groggy, disoriented state perceives the dark around her as vast and empty.  And really who could go back to sleep with that thought in her head?  She is only just now one year old and thinking back to when Brother was that age I realize that I did not expect him to sleep alone.  In fact, we had a rather large family bed until he was almost 3.  I’ve only been trying to push her toward crib sleep because of the new baby’s impending arrival.  But it’s not right.  She’s not ready and I know only too well the sleep problems that arise from pushing a child too soon.

So, all of that leads to tonight.  We are fortunate to have a master bedroom with a rather large sitting area to one side.  This sitting area has been functioning as the “nursery”  But tonight we rearranged the our bedroom furniture from a very cute and ordered “master bedroom with a nursery” to a messy hodgepodge of “sleeping space and everything else”.  First Will removed the up/down side of the crib, then we jammed it up against the side of our bed.  Everything else was rearranged around that.  It may not be traditional but it’s necessary and I know in the long run we will all be better sleepers because of it.  All this change got Dora pretty wound up so even though she was extremely tired  it took a good 45 minutes for her to get to sleep but she did it eventually (and suddenly) and I think it is a good beginning.

*Side Note #1:  If you think that at one year old Dora should be sleeping all the way through the night every night then you either A) don’t have children B) got darn lucky with your own children or C) are lying to yourself about what your little one is doing at night all alone in that room way down the hall.

Side Note #2:  Some people buy those co-sleeper contraptions that fit on the side of a bed but unless space is an issue I suggest saving your money because first of all those little beds cost an arm and a leg and second they are so little that past 9 or 10 months they are completely unusable.  A regular crib works fine and lasts much longer.   In our case, the crib we have converts to toddler bed so it was easy to take the side off but with Brother we used a regular crib and fastened it to the frame of our bed and it worked well too.

Since I was nursing when baby #4 surprised us by his presence we weren’t sure of the due date so we went to see Barbara.  She gave us these.

and a due date of Nov 18th … you know, because having a newborn in the mix will really make the holiday season go more smoothly.

She also told us our baby to be is a boy (which, for the record, I knew already).  Sister and Brother are both pleased with this information.  Sister because it means that she won’t have to share her room with another sibling and Brother because he likes things to be even.

She also told us that Baby is super healthy and perfect in every way.  (She didn’t use those exact words but that’s what she meant.) but she also informed us that we have marginal placenta previa.  Probably everything will be just fine because it’s still so early in the pregnancy but later we will make a trip to see Barbara again to be sure.  Other than that all is well.

As a bonus for you, here’s a baby picture that Sister drew for me when we returned.

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She’s almost nine months.

She crawls (sometimes cruises). She can sit well on her own.

It was time to graduate from the kitchen sink to a real bathtub. 

SHE. LOVED. IT!

Oh, if only that enthusiasm could be transferred to her siblings.

This picture reminds me of another one from a few years ago.  I was taking shots of my, then baby, nephew while his parents made every effort to extract a smile.  The baby was cute but the parents were even better.  I couldn’t help turning the camera on them instead.

Somehow I never posted my Buckaroo haiku on the front page ~ not certain why.  Anyway, today I found the perfect picture accompaniment from Dora’s early days and had to share.

baby in the house

bleary eyes for tiny toes

a worthy exchange.

**In case you were wondering about those two blue bumps, they’re my knees.  I’m laying on my back, balancing my 3 month old up in the air with my legs while taking pictures and saying “cootchie coo” repeatedly.  Yep, we’re all about the safety around here.

Due to a slight paranoia, for the longest time on this blog my eldest daughter has been known as Sister and my son as Brother and that seemed oh so sufficient and clever back in the day when we were NEVER going to have any more children.  Never?  Ha!

So finding a bloggy name for our littlest has presented a bit of a conundrum.  She’s been “Baby” up to now but how will that go over when she’s not a baby or what about when another comes along?  (Yes, we are planning on having more)  Calling her “Littlest” presents the same problem.  She needs a moniker that won’t get usurped by another.  She needs a name she can keep.  But what?  Soon after the birth Brother declared he did not care for Baby’s given name.  He would call her “Dora” instead.  Not wanting to jump on the Nick Jr bandwagon I resisted using his choice here.  Now however I’ve convinced myself that “Dora” can easily be explained as short for “Adorable”.  Since she’s all that and more … Internets, meet Dora.

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Consuming baby love

like the intoxicating beverage it is.

Can’t get enough.

Drunk all the time.

Thank You!