Puppy vs. Baby

I've been meaning to write this blog for quite some time now. When Natalie was about a month old, I asked David "Which do you think is harder: a puppy or a baby?". He immediately answered "a puppy, by far". I completely agree. At least when we compare our puppy and our baby. We lost Roxy to the busy road in January, and we miss her a lot, but at times she was a challenge. We brought her home when she was 10 weeks old, and the first month was definitely rough. She would whine and cry all.night.long. Between the crying and the bathroom breaks every 2-3 hrs, we didn't sleep much those first few weeks. Natalie was much easier that first month. Maybe it was just a baby-high, but she would actually sleep for a few hours at a time, she hardly cried, and we didn't have to stand outside and follow her around with a flashlight for the 3am bathroom breaks!

We'll probably get another dog someday, but for now we're just enjoying our baby girl :)

In other news, Natalie is getting into her own routine. I'm sure once I put this in writing, all of our progress will go out the window, but she has officially slept all night for 11 nights now. I thought it was a reaction from her shots, but she's been continuing ever since then. She usually falls asleep between 8 and 9, I wake her up a little for a diaper change and another feeding at 10 and then she is out until 7:30 or so in the morning! A few nights she has woken up around 3 and whined a little. I usually go give her the pacifier, and she falls back asleep. Overall, nighttime is pretty good. Daytime is still more unknown...she's usually up for an hour or so in the morning and then wants to take a nap. After that, it's kind of a guessing game, but usually 2.5 hrs between feedings. I think last week must have been a growth spurt..she was begging to eat every 2 hrs, but that seems to have stopped now. Sleeping and eating, still her two favorite activities!

We visited the beach Santa this weekend. Temps were in the mid 70s, too hot for Santa to wear his coat. Natalie was really alert, but the sun was kind of at a bad angle - too bright for photos.


I'm sure I'll have a ton of pictures to post after Christmas. We're looking forward to all of the family visits and fun. But for now..I'm off to try my hand at baking pies! (first I have to brave the grocery store!)