The Abby Report: August 7, 2009 (Dawn Patrol)

Since I offered a little tidbit this morning, this post will be on the short side.

As I mentioned, Abby has been sleeping much better as of late, and Mommy and I could not be happier. I like to think that my various strategies and tactics are brilliantly managing her sleeping, but I suspect that she pretty much just sleeps when she's tired and stays awake when she's not. At any rate, things are going well now, and I'll take it, no matter what the reasons are.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. We went to the playgroup in the morning, and Abby got to see her friends. Most of the babies are a few months older than she is, so I get a little sample of what's in store for me when she starts crawling. There's one little girl, an adorable red-head, who is a very enthusiastic crawler. Her parents would go pluck her from whatever situation she'd gotten into the middle of, bring her back, sit her down on the big blanket, and she would immediately crawl back over to where she'd been. She was like a machine, and there's no reason to think that Abby won't do exactly the same thing.

After taking her out every morning, I usually get her back home at between 10:30 and 11:00. She's hungry by then, and wide awake, so that's when I usually give her the sweet potatoes and rice cereal. After she finishes lunch off with part of a bottle of formula, she's usually sleepy and naps until after noon.

When she wakes up, she insists on playing with me for pretty much the rest of the day. We practice sitting and standing. She sits in my lap, and I hand her toys to play with. It's a great way to spend an afternoon. There's no way to rush things. There's no way you can write or work in any way. You just have to take a deep breath, put all of those things out of your mind, and play with your baby. It forces me to put myself in the right frame of mind , and this is a very good thing.

You might be wondering how it is that I am writing this right now if all of this is true. Well, she usually takes a couple of short naps in the afternoon, so it's possible to blog a little. It is impossible, however, to do philosophy - hence the adjustment to my schedule.