The Schneider Family: Alaska: Updates

Well, apparently I have to start writing blog posts a little at a time offline instead of spending a couple hours when Matt is home getting one put together. I had every intention last weekend on writing a blog post, but life got in the way. We were pretty busy doing random things last weekend, and I didn't get the chance. I'm trying a new house cleaning technique; I clean the house really really well, then as the days go by I just pick up and wipe down. Due to our broken vacuum belt (and our lack of focus while at Walmart to pick up a new one) I haven't vacuumed in a number of weeks. That being said, the house looks pretty good. Our bathroom, it seems, is not part of this new house cleaning plan. I can't seem to keep it clean. Mostly because it's really our main bathroom for everything. Showers, Isabella's baths (in her ducky bathtub on the counter) AND the cat's litter box. It's flat out a mess in there. I clean it every so often, but it's one of the rooms that I can't clean when Isabella is awake because I use so many different chemicals, I don't want her anywhere near the bathroom. This house is a lot harder to keep clean than our old house, and it's tough to keep up. We do need to get that new vacuum belt...the cat hair isn't going to vacuum it's self!

Not too much going on these days. Matt is still working in Talkeetna as director of maintenance for Sheldon Air Service and a aircraft mechanic for Talkeetna Aero Services. He is usually in Talkeetna from Monday morning until Wednesday evening, then he comes home for the night and leaves Thursday mornings to come home Friday afternoon or evening. This week, to save gas, he is waiting until Thursday evening to come home and will be staying for a three day weekend. Isabella and I took a short trip to Talkeetna on Monday afternoon to visit everyone. They had not seen her in a couple of months, so we figured we should go up. We only stayed for a couple hours then headed home. Isabella did pretty well. She wasn't happy at all about going back in her car seat and making the hour and a half journey back home, but she eventually calmed down and fell asleep.

Isabella is still doing well overall. We are now entering into the separation anxiety portion of babyhood. *sigh* It's been interesting so far. I mentioned in the last blog post that we left her with my parents for a couple of hours one day so Matt and I could enjoy a pre-anniversary lunch alone. Isabella didn't take to that too well. Since then we have been trying to get her to spend more time with my parents so next time she isn't so freaked out. It's not easy with gas prices still pretty high and living in Wasilla with my parents in Eagle River. It's not really that far, but to go back and forth a couple times a week just isn't practical for anyone.
Church last Sunday was....a new experience. Isabella, up until now, had been doing fine in the church nurseries. I say nurseries because generally she is combined with older kids because of the lack of volunteers for the 9:00am service. Normally, as long as she can watch the big kids play, she is ok. Well last Sunday her number flashed up on the board during the service, fairly early. Within the first half hour. So I went back and the whole room was full of screaming and crying babies. The ladies said it was a domino affect, one baby started crying and the rest of them started...and wouldn't stop! So when I got there Isabella was fine, and no longer crying, but I took her anyway to give the ladies one less kid to look after. They had combined the 0-11 month room (just Isabella really) with the 12-24 month room, so the majority of the kids were toddlers. Poor Isabella was getting lost in the mix I think. So she and I went to the lobby and walked around...for an hour. I did, at one point, try to bring her into the main room and sit with Matt, but she kept making noises and I didn't want to disturb people. It's a good thing we went back into the lobby too because she kept crying off and on. She was acting really tired, so I took a chance and rubbed some Ora gel on her gums and tried to get her to sleep by walking her around. She did go to sleep, but still, I didn't dare bring her back in. So we just stood out in the lobby until the service was over and Matt came.

Our problem is that all three services don't work with her schedule. She goes down for her morning nap at 9:30 (hence the overtired/sleeping issue of last week) so the 9:00am isn't working. The next service is 11:00am and she is normally still napping OR eating at that time, so even if I let her sleep an hour starting at 9:30am that would be 10:30am and she would need to eat before we left, and we have to leave by 10:30. It takes her 15-20 minutes to eat. The last service is 1:00 and she goes down for her afternoon nap at 1:30pm! We can't win no matter what service we go to. On top of all that, because of the lack of volunteers, the 0-11 month old room will be closed for the 9:00am and the 1:00pm services, so if we want her to stay in the 0-11 month room (and I do because she gets more attention from the adults), we have to go to the 11:00 service, and we don't really want to go to that one, it doesn't work well for Isabella eating and nap wise. Boy are we in a pickle.

I'm still having trouble with her sleeping during her nap times too. She doesn't seem to want to stay asleep for very long. I don't get it. She used to sleep for 2-3 hours during her morning and afternoon naps, then she would go down for a short evening nap around 4:30 or 5:00 and sleep until I wake her up at 6:00. Apparently those days are over. I'm lucky if she sleeps more than an hour during her morning and afternoon naps and her evening naps are only for 20 minutes to a half hour. I'm trying not to complain here, I know there are kids that won't even do that much. I'm just used to her sleeping longer, that's all. It seems like something keeps waking her up. I have tired everything I can think of. The only thing that seems to help is if she eats her solids 45 minutes or so before she is due to go down. That seems to help her sleep longer and better. I have tried getting Ora gel on her gums before I put her down in case her teeth or gums are bothering her, I have given her infant Tylenol in case something is hurting her too. I don't know what else to try. She might just not want to sleep anymore. I get it though, lots to do during the day. Now that she can move around more, I'm sure she just wants to be up doing that. She is still sleeping through the nights, occasionally she wakes up early, makes noises, fusses a little bit, then goes back to sleep until it's time to get up. Lately she has been screaming in her sleep. At least I think she is still sleeping, because that's the only sound she makes. I think she might be having bad dreams...

Isabella is doing a lot more now. Some things are happening very subtly, others are very noticeable. She is still crawl-flopping, but she is starting to move her arms now instead of keeping them were they are and just moving her legs. So she is starting to get it. She is also sitting up on her own now, sometimes she can even get from a laying position to a sitting position with the use of leaning on something (usually her little Dora couch). She is also starting to pull herself up on things and she is starting to play on her own for short times. I don't have to sit on the floor anymore the entire time she plays. I can sit on a couch and read while watching her and as long as she can see me, she is ok...most of the time. I have been taking video and pictures as much as I can. Last month I got a Samsung Focus, it's a Windows formatted smart phone. It's helped a lot with my ability to take video and pictures more. I'm trying to keep my pictures organized by month so at the end of the year I can make a photo album through Shutterfly.com for the year. It also helps me keep track of what she looks like at each of her "birthday days".

Here are some pictures and videos!

Isabella's First Thunder Storm

Here is Isabella moving. She is moving faster than this now. This video was taken last week, and today I almost couldn't catch her before she reached the floor vent that she isn't allowed to get :)