Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Cool babies wear their headbands to the side!


It's been awhile since I have posted a Ramona update, so I thought I would take some time to catch you up. Here's what we have been working on since our last posting:

1. Sitting up/balancing on her booty. This is a tricky game, because at any moment she could do a nose dive into the carpet. But she is doing pretty well. She looks so cute propped up on the couch.

2. Sleeping through the night (Round 2). You might have known that just 1 month ago, Ramona was sleeping 11 hours at night. ELEVEN HOURS!! It was awesome. She kept this up for several months. Yes, we were "those parents". We would smile and shrug when other parents would ask us how we managed to get our 3 month old to sleep that long. "What a good baby!" they would say. And then out of no where, she started waking up one and two times a night. So, at five months old she is sleeping 6-8 hours at night. Not too bad.

Side Note: I read my baby bible (Baby 411) and it turns out we are doing everything wrong sleep wise. Here's the checklist:
- Lay her down while is still awake, but almost sleeping. (She Cries...Loudly)
- Don't give her a pacifier because she will wake up crying if it's gone. (Whoops we do that too!)
- Don't let her fall asleep for the night while feeding. (But that's how she goes to sleep!)
- Don't feed her during the night, offer her a pacifier first. A five month old can go 6 hours with out eating at night. (What?!? Doesn't that conflict with a previous rule? And eating will put her back to sleep, I've got work in the morning!)

RANT: And since I mentioned work, how the heck can all these Mom's afford to stay home? Even with rising gas prices and paying $825 a month for daycare, I still can't afford to quit working and stay home. That's crazy! It's like paying rent for a separate baby apartment. I've run the budget and cut out EVERYTHING... Tivo, Netflix, gym membership, cable, the cat. And we still come up short. Somebody please email me your budget and how you afford to live on a single income. Because I would love to stop paying someone to raise my baby. Rant over.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures!



5 generations. Ramona and I are looking the
wrong way, because there are two cameras.

5 comments:

Payton's mom said...

I am right there with you girl. I used to have a baby who slept through the night too! I miss those days, lol. And I don't know how stay it home mom's do it either. There is so no way when my husband teaches too! So know you are not alone!

Jessica said...

Okay....so here is how I plan on staying home, but keep in mind I haven't started yet! Michael recently secured a job that pays for our house and all it's bills, minus TiVo....and that's how it's done, the end. Soooo....it's not as easy as you'd think. These kinds of jobs aren't easy to find and they don't usually pay all that well, so we're still on a pretty tight budget even after the free house thing.

I happen to think that your two days of working at home is a sweet deal though. I tried to do part-time but PT jobs don't pay much more than daycare charges...so that idea was out!

Hey, let's start an internet business and work from our homes with our girls.

I'll work on ways for all women to stay home with their children and get back to you! Until then, you guys are SUPERMOMS!!!

Alyssa G said...

Rule #1 of sleep: Throw away all books on sleep and do what works for your baby!!

I am one of those SAHMs, I am lucky cause CT makes a bunch of money. We couldn't handle it otherwise. I would be willing to watch Ramona a few times a week if you want to not pay so much in daycare fees.

Miranda and Roger said...

That's a great idea about the internet business. Also look for bigger companies online that offer phone positions where you can act as a help desk, etc. I keep hearing about it on Good Morning America... try looking on their site to see if they offer a list of companies that offer that service.

And... Ramona is still the prettiest girl I know. :-)

Lauren said...

I wanna be Ramona's nanny!! You can pay me in wine....