During my maternity leave, when Liesl was only a few weeks old (and only sleeping a few hours at a time), I would peruse “mom blogs” and literally roll my eyes when I read posts that said “…my baby sleeps 12 hours at night..” I seriously doubted that this was possible, that these mothers were off-their-rocker lying, and that getting a full night’s sleep ever again was as elusive as seeing Bigfoot.

Can you tell that I was sleep deprived, a bit emotional, and feeling generally overwhelmed as a new mother?

It’s amazing what a few months in infant-time can do not only for a child’s development but for the parents’ mental well-being. For other first-time parents out there, rest assured that there will come a time when your child will sleep for more than two hours at a time. There will come a time when you and your spouse will have a moment of peace and quiet for just the two of you again. There will come a time when your baby will make noises other than crying.

Milestones
Baby girl started teething about a month ago, and is such a little drooler! Her first baby tooth peeked out a few days ago, and it’s so funny watching her put absolutely everything in her mouth to ease her discomfort.

She’s making all sorts of noises, too! Her “sounds” are:

• Laughing & giggling. This is the BEST sound, as it’s usually accompanied by smiles!
• Grunting. She must get this one from Pete…
• Loud “aaaahhhhh” and “oooooohhhhh” type sounds. Like, seriously loud. She’ll be in her crib before nap time talking to herself, and I literally laugh out loud just listening to her.
• Mewling or crying. She only cries now if she’s hungry, gets frustrated about something, or if Pete (accidentally) scares her with his loud noises or rubs his whiskers against her face.

Liesl still gets frustrated when trying to sit on her own or to crawl. She’s such an active baby, and doesn’t care to sit or snuggle with us in the rocker unless food is involved. She’d prefer to be in her jumper or rolling around on the floor, so we generally let her loose so she can play.

She took her first flight this past weekend when we went to Kauai! She cried like a banshee when we took off (it was nap time), but was much better when we flew home (it was feeding time, so she had a bottle to suck on). She went in the pool for the first time while in Kauai, and she loved it! She particularly liked all the kicking she could do and the bubbles that Pete would blow in the water.

Bath time continues to be one of her favorite times of day. She loves the warm water and getting quality snuggle time in with Daddy while he feeds her.

Note about getting Liesl to sleep:
For Pete and me, getting Liesl to sleep was such a huge milestone. I was searching online one night when Liesl was about five or six weeks old (yes, during one of her many wake ups) for help on how to get your child to sleep, and came across a book called “Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old” by Suzy Giordano. Although “sleep training” might not be important for everyone, or perhaps your baby started sleeping on his or her own pretty easily (and within the first few months of life), it was such a lifesaver for us. There are lots of different tactics out there for getting your child to sleep; this one worked really well for us. She’s on a pretty rigid schedule, which works well for our family considering our highly structured life.