Samantha at 15 Weeks: Ben Going Back to School

This past weekend my sister Christy came to visit us.  It is always so great to see her and for Samantha to have bonding time with her aunt.  While Christy was here, we went to the farmer's market in Bloomington, attended a cook out with the political science department, played some dominoes, and just talked and caught up with each other.  You can't see it because of the bib around her neck, but Samantha is wearing her "I love my auntie" onesie that Christy got her. This will probably be the last month that it will fit her!

As far as new developments with Samantha, something that just happened for the first time last Tuesday is Samantha grabbing her feet.  I was at work and Ben texted me saying, "She grabbed her foot!"  Going along with that, she is also grabbing at toys a lot more now.  It is fun now that she is starting to play with her toys more and interact with the objects around her.  We may change our minds some day when she is pressing all the buttons on her toys that make noise!  She will reach for objects on purpose and then bring them to her mouth.  Right now, everything she touches goes in her mouth, any toys, bibs, anything, and she is such a little drooler right now!  We practically have to keep her in a bib all day long or else we would have to be changing her outfit constantly!

Also, when Christy was here, we took her to Brown County State Park, and we walked around and enjoyed the pleasant day.  Samantha is doing a much better job taking longer naps, and will usually take a good solid afternoon nap especially.  (She slept in her car seat the whole time we were at the state park.)  We have no problem getting her to sleep either in her crib or in her pack n' play during the day, and we are continuing to put her in her crib in her own room at night as well.  I usually put her down in her crib for the first stretch of the night, and then once she wakes up, I bring her into our room and feed her and then put her back to bed in her pack n' play next to our bed for the remainder of the night.  It seems to be working pretty well for right now, and eventually we will transition her into trying to sleep in her crib again after she wakes up as well.  We are very happy with her sleeping habits, and are amazed at how much of a corner she seemed to turn in this area in the last month.  She is much easier to get to sleep and is much better about sleeping on her own now.

However, going along with that, over the weekend when Christy was visiting, Samantha got her first stuffy nose.  The poor girl sounded so sad with her sniffly nose, and that Saturday night she had a really hard time sleeping.  It was almost like she didn't want to lay down flat on her back because of her nose, maybe it was draining down her throat and bothering her, I don't know.  She woke up a lot that night, and we didn't even bother trying to put her in her crib. However, at about 6:30 she woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep except for laying at an incline on my chest.  So, I propped myself up on pillows in bed so that I could at least get some rest too, and Samantha slept on my chest for the next two hours.  Now, I don't think I got very good rest in those two hours, but I was happy to be there for my little girl and felt so bad for her poor little stuffy nose.

The last big event in Samantha's life over the last week was Ben starting back at IU and Samantha starting to be babysat during the day by our good friend Melanie.  Monday was the first day she started full time, and I have to admit that it was harder for me than I thought it would be.  I took it for granted when she was at home with Ben for the last three weeks because I could call him anytime and hear updates on how she was doing and what was going on during the day.  I am extremely happy that she is staying in someone's home during the day rather than having to go to a daycare, that makes me feel much better about having to be gone at work all day.  I know Melanie is taking great care of her, and Samantha will have fun hanging out with her two boys every day.  It will definitely be an adjustment for us this week to get used to both of us being gone and working during the day, keeping up with Ben's busy school schedule and reading/work load, along with running the house, and making sure we spend lots of time with our little Samantha whenever we can.  This has been a busy week for us, but we know that God will help us through this and that he has us where he wants us to be for this season of our life, and I am so glad that our life now included the blessing of a little baby girl who we call Samantha.