The Family Bed

We never started out planning to bed-share. It was not on my radar at all. I very confidently declared both pre and during pregnancy that my baby would go to her crib after a few weeks, 3 months at most. I would say, That's just how we do it in my family.
And then I met Emine. And winter started. And our house became a cold, windy, unheatable place and the thought of sending Emoş to that cold, breezy, poorly insulated room was just too difficult, never mind how much it would cost us to heat it. So we postponed her moving over there.

In the meantime, she developed a pretty regular night-time routine where she would wake twice to eat and then go back to sleep. I noticed that if I put her back in her bassinet after her second feeding, she would wake up an hour later fussing and whining. I would then take her in bed next to me and she would sleep peacefully for a few more hours.
After noticing this regularly I started bypassing the fussing at all and just putting her to bed with me after her second feeding. Then it started happening after her first feeding. And then suddenly she was both too big for the bassinet and also trying to turn over, which caused the bassinet to rock and sway with an alarming fury.

We talked about moving her to her crib. She was already napping there during the days. Bekir and I decided we wanted to keep her with us for a bit more because A) her room was still an ice-box and B) we like having her with us.

Cut to our wonderful nanny trying to move her crib to our room only to find it wouldn't fit out the door of her bedroom. So then we were faced with two choices: full-time in the crib or nights in our bed. The choice was easy. We love having her snuggle up next to us (ok, next to me!) when she rolls to her side in her sleep. Bekir loves coming to bed late and finding us both sleeping peacefully. And I love when she wakes me in the morning by her sweet cooing, and her gummy smile when I say, "good morning, how are you?"

So for now we have the family bed. Hopefully we are less akward-looking than the family in the picture of this now out-of-print book. But even if we aren't, no one is around to see us anyway!

what a difference a month makes

Emine had her four month checkup this week. Not even counting weight and height, the developmental changes that happened over the last month have been amazing.

She loves to pull herself up to sitting and is able to hold herself up for a few seconds before toppling over. She also loves to pull herself up to standing but isn't always successful when she attempts.

She is more vocal, responsive, and she understands several words. She is drooling like crazy and this morning woke up wanting to gnaw on my finger to ease her gum pain. She was working very hard on turning over for a couple of weeks. I even bragged to my family that I was sure she would be doing it by Valentines day. Well, last weekend she stopped working on it and has moved on to other interests but I'm sure she will revisit it soon!

baby friends

Emine has a friend named Marek who is 3 weeks younger than her. His mom is Czech and his dad is Turkish. They live here in Adana and Marek will speak English, Turkish, and Czech as he grows. His mom, Olga and I used to work together. She is a "real" English teacher, as opposed to me who sort of fell into it.

We went to visit them today, as they came to see us on New Years Eve. Marek is about as long as Emine but boy is he lighter than her! It was like picking up a feather. They basically ignored each other and definately didn't realize they there was another baby there. Emine did try to grab his ear with her razor talon fingernails, but didn't do any damage.

They both got cranky at the same time so our visit was short, but I can't wait until they can interact with each other! Baby talk is so cute.

grow, baby, grow

I believe we are in the middle of the 3 month growth spurt here. On Friday, Emine jumped from drinking about 850 ml of formula a day to over 1000. Today she drank 1100. She is also super cranky and crabby. I swear she grew in inch over the weekend.
We are also still battling the 45 minute intruder. She hasn't had a nap longer than 45 minutes for over a week. The poor thing wakes up crying because she just wants to keep sleeping, and when she sticks that little bottom lip out it is just heartbreaking. I keep hearing different opinions about how to deal with this, but absolutly nothing I try works. And once she wakes up there is no getting her back down until the next nap time.
I realize that "sleep begets sleep" no longer applies now that she is not a newborn anymore. There is a limit of how much sleep she needs, and since she is getting so much at night, perhaps thats why she can't really nap. But that stretch at night is not nearly long enough to get her through the day, and she ends up a cranky mess. Here's hoping she grows out of it sooner rather than later.

The Magical 3 month mark

Everyone has been telling me that after 3 months, babies get easier. Well, as we have been approaching the 3 month mark, I can safely say that although some of Emine's mysteries have been revealed, I am discovering more every day.

For example, just a few days after reaching 12 weeks, she discovered a new sound. She surprised herself and everyone in the house when she screeched a sound that can only be described as a falcon attacking its prey. We were shocked, she was shocked, and then she quickly realized that that sound gets attention. Now it is her go-to sound. Super fun at 6am.