A Sutre on the Bridge

Hannah had a very big accident today.  The accident itself (falling out of her high chair) doesn't seem nearly as scary as, say, rolling down the stairs, but the end result was way worse.  This small fall left her with a gash in the bridge of her nose, a trip to the ER, and a stitch.

I wish I could tell you what happened, but neither me nor Laura really saw it. Hannah was in her high chair just hanging out and finishing up her lunch. I had wheeled her over to the sink and pulled the tray off to wash it along with the lunch dishes.  Laura was sitting at the island getting ready to eat some turkey pot pie.  The very instant that she looked down at her fork, I turned to put a plate in the sink and then, THUD, we tossed our respective fork and plate to find Hannah on the floor screaming AND bleeding. We're guessing that she was reaching for the door of the fridge and rolled out over the mini tray that is built into the chair (it's very small and short because it fits beneath the regular sized tray).  I've never seen her bleed before, but still my immediate reaction was relatively calm, which is impressive for me because I tend to freak out under high pressure situations.  I guess it's because past accidents have shown that Hannah is incredibly resilient and virtually unbreakable, so I was trying to take this one a little more calmly than the others.  While I snuggled her tight and tried to calm her, I had Laura look at her face to determine what was bleeding and how bad it was.  Locating the cut was easier than determining what to do about it.  We ended up heading next door for a professional opinion. Amy wasn't home, but Nate was and he's an EMT so that's the next best thing to a nurse practitioner in my back.  He suggested we err on the side of caution and call the pediatrician so I did, after all, this is her face we're talking about.  The nurse who answered my only semi-panicked phone call also suggested I err on the side of caution and take her in to the ER.  Hannah was still screaming pretty loudly and there was enough of her blood on my shoulders now for the adrenaline and worry to start creeping into my system.

I cannot even begin to describe how grateful I am that Laura was there with us. Her presence not only made the whole experience easier, but it also kept me in a relatively put together position.  She even drove my car so I could ride in the back with Hannah. I think both Hannah and I would have been much worse off if I had to strap her into the car seat and leave her in the back alone.

Even with her sitting still in the car I couldn't get a good look at the cut and was still wondering if I should even be taking her to the ER, if maybe I was overreacting.  The guys who took her stats in the first room seemed to think it was "just an abrasion" so I was starting to feel a little embarrassed. I decided that even if it was something small that didn't warrant a trip to the ER, at least they'd be able to clean her up and sterilize her which was more than I was going to be able to do considering how strong and squirmy my child is.

While waiting for the pediatrician, Hannah fell asleep on me. It was nap time and she'd been screaming pretty hard for a while.  She stayed asleep while the pediatrician inspected her face which was awesome because prior to that, she buried her face in my chest when anyone tried to look at it. He recommended a stitch because it's pretty deep in one part and it's her face, her beautiful little perfect face, and who wants a scar on their face?  He made it sound like stitching it would ensure a less bad scar.

The lady doing the stitching came in to talk next and explained that if it were anywhere else on her body, they'd just glue it, but the bridge of her nose is too close to her eye for glue.  She said the other option was some piece of tape thingy but it was no good until it stopped bleeding (which it showed no signs of doing) and she worried that Hannah would pick at it.  So a stitch it is....

A dramatic ER shot taken right after she woke up from her nap.

Then we had to talk about numbing agents...They've got some gel thing they use but Hannah would have to sit still with it on her face for 25 minutes and not touch it....The stitcher lady seemed to think that wasn't likely, and I had to agree with her. She said it'd be silly to use a needle because Hannah would have to get stuck with the needle twice to numb it and then she'd get the stitch for a total of three prick. Or we could forgo the numbing and she could just get one stitch.  It was settled: Hannah was to receive one stitch with no numbing agent/pain killer.  I was second guessing these decisions left and right. Part of me wanted to just pack up and head home and return to the time when it was probably just a small cut that would be fine.  It went from being an abrasion to a laceration in a matter of 30 minutes.

They readied their little room and then called for me to bring in Hannah. She was immediately swaddled very tightly in a sheet to pin her down.  An orderly held her head straight, and I held her legs.  Hannah screamed, I sobbed. I tried so hard to tell her it was okay, but she wasn't looking at me or listening to me.  She just kept looking back and forth to the lady with the plastic shield over her face who did the stitching and the orderly who had her pinned. She looked so scared. I really can't think of a worse experience in my 30 years of life.

And then it was over.  We went back to the little curtained room where Laura was waiting, and I nursed Hannah.  Afterward she was in good spirits so I put her shoes on her and let her walk out of the hospital. Well, I let her walk until I saw a creepy guy on a bed in the hallway clutching one of those sausage shaped plastic containers (bed pan? puke pan??).  That grossed me out so I picked her up and hightailed it out of there.  We were the only ones in the ER when we go there so it had seemed like a nice, clean place, but people were showing up as we were leaving so no need to linger!

Hannah seemed unphased by the whole thing for most of the rest of the day until bedtime when she clung to me a little longer than usual. I'm hoping she sleeps well because that was a lot of stress and her nap today was very short.

And now for some post-stitch photos:

Having a snack back at home. 

You can see her wound pretty well in this one as well as the bruise on her cheek.  The stitch continued to bleed all afternoon so that's why it looks open like that.

Blurry and obviously not a good photo, but evidence that her spirits did bounce back pretty quickly after getting stitched.

The Not-So-Great Thanksgiving Shots

The weather outside was dark and gloomy yesterday and since our shoe box shaped row home only has one window in the front and one in the back anyway, dark and gloomy weather means a total lack of natural light indoors and a total lack of natural light, as we all know, means no good pics for me.  The kids move too much to not use the flash, but using the flash makes the picture weirdly bleached out and flat and impossible for me to edit...So I left the camera alone yesterday and mostly just stuck to cooking and cleaning up.

That said, if you want to see a few not-so-great pics taken at random points during the day, scroll on.

Grammy and the grand babies.

The cousins spent most of the day talking on the phone.  Luckily we have two phones so the fighting was minimal.

At the end of the day we realized we hadn't really gotten any good photos so we jumped into overdrive.

A slightly blurry Hannah and her Uncle Chip.

Clay was too busy talking on the phone to be bothered by Aunt Terri.

Mom tried to take a photo of her kids and their kids....Here's how that worked out:

I stole the next two pics from my mom's camera.

Hannah and Aunt Erica.

Snuggling my very fair nephew (and my mom's teeny, tiny dog).

At least I got a few shots for memory, but it's a bummer that I didn't get any framers.  Maybe next year....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Unfortunately, I didn't go all mamarazzi today, and the few pics that I was motivated to take didn't turn out too well....Now that the babies are walking, they are impossible to photograph together! I'll post a few of those terrible photos anyway, but not tonight. Tonight I'm tired and am going to bed!  Here's Hannah enjoying her first Thanksgiving meal (she wasn't old enough to eat with us last year).  She LOVED the cranberries. I even let her eat a little pumpkin pie, but, oddly enough, she wasn't that into it.  Good!!  That means I'm doing a good job of developing her taste buds around non-sweets! Well, except that the cranberries are sweet....

 I hope you all enjoyed the holiday and found much to be thankful for!

Hannah's New (Old) Table

Hannah inherited a little wooden table with two chairs that belonged to her granpah and his sister when they were little and then to her daddy and uncles.  We set it up it at the end of the island kinda halfway between the kitchen and the dining room in the spot the high chair formerly occupied (we're passing that down to Hannah's friend Adelaide until Hannah has a sibling who needs it).  Hannah sat right down with her breakfast and her crayons and started coloring.  (We were moving slowly on Saturday so you'll have to excuse the fact that she is only half dressed and that her hair is crazy and in her face.)

Before long, Hannah decided to rearrange the furniture...

She pushed the table all the way over to the window, which is, admittedly, a much nicer spot to sit. Unfortunately, that spot is currently occupied by the cat's food and water...Fortunately, we're okay with the table sitting kinda cockeyed and haphazardly in the middle of the room as long as it keeps her happy and occupied while I'm trying to make her breakfast, and so far, it does. Love it! Thanks Grannah and Granpah!

Just to Clarify...

I am an avid subscriber to the Whatever Floats Your Boat club and did not intend my last post to be at all preachy or judgmental or anything like that. On the contrary, I was feeling paranoid about societal pressure and felt the need to defend my right to continue to nurse past age 1...I have no clue why I'd been feeling so unnecessarily paranoid and insecure about it, but I'm not now and part of getting here was blogging about it. Catharsis is the name of the game.

In short, please know that I don't think that I know what's best for ANYBODY'S kid but my own, and I hope I never act like I do because I try really hard not to. It's hard enough for mamas these days without other mamas judging them...From where I stand, nursing seemed like the path of least resistance, so I took it, and since me and my nursing partner are happy on that path, we've decided to stay a little while longer.

My Breastfeeding Rant (and 15-month stats)

Alas, I have no pictures for you today, only stats from Hannah's 15-month checkup and an overly long rant on breastfeeding.

Weight: 20 lbs 6 oz (15-20th percentile)
Length: 31-1/2 inches (80-90th percentile)
Head circumference: 48 cm (totally forget the percentile, but "everything looks good.")

Hannah took her baby doll to her appointment, and I told the doctor that we sometimes say things like, "It looks like the baby is tired, I think it's time for her nap" to get Hannah to nap more easily. It's a great trick, one that I highly recommend., and it worked at the doctor too.  After inspecting Baby's eyes, nose, and mouth, the doc inspected Hannah's eyes, nose, and mouth, not that Hannah has ever done poorly with the doctor, but she is getting old enough to be confused by it. Unfortunately, Baby was useless when it came to  easing the pain of the two booster shots that Hannah took to the right thigh.  I used to think that sticking an infant was the hardest thing in the world because you couldn't explain to them what was going on and they are so helpless and vulnerable, but now I think that sticking a toddler is harder because they trust you and also because they are capable of more accusatory facial expressions, expressions that say "How could you, you traitor!!"  I thought she'd never forgive me for pinning her arms around her while the pediatrician pumped her full of pain, but after the pediatrician left, I whipped out my secret weapon and let her nurse until all was right with the world again. My what magical boobs you have mommy!!

When I told the pediatrician that Hannah was still nursing she said, "Good for you!" and then asked if I still felt full and then emptied...I guess trying to figure out if I thought Hannah was actually getting sustenance or just comfort.  It was a harmless question phrased delicately but it confused me and temporarily offended me.  I don't like vague, delicately phrased questions because it takes too long for me to decipher them and then once I've managed to figure out what the person is actually asking me and managed to give them the answer they were fishing for, I end up trying to figure out why they phrased it like that and whether or not I should be offended and whip out the boxing gloves. Usually there is less thinking going on and more offense taken/whipping of the boxing gloves. Maybe part of that is the lingering new mama insecurity. Maybe I'm just a psycho hose beast. Either way, it makes me think that being a pediatrician, especially one for babies, must be one of the hardest jobs ever because you have to deal with post-partum women and new mamas like me....Eeeek!  I prefer questions like this: "are you still producing or is she just nursing for comfort?" To which I would answer, "yes, I am still producing, and yes, she does occasionally nurse more probably for comfort."

The nursing thing has had me all confused lately. In the beginning when asked how long I planned to nurse, I always just said, "at least until she's 1" and figured I'd figure it out after that, but I hadn't figured anything out when she turned 1 so I tried to start weaning her, mostly because it seemed the most socially acceptable thing to do, but then she got that terrible rash and the stomach virus, and her molars started coming in (they're in now), and the doctor said her canines are coming through now, so at each of those hurdles, I quit the weaning and let her nurse on demand to get through it.  At this point, I am mostly successful at keeping her from nursing mid-morning (the first and only one I cut); however, she often makes up for this nursing later in the afternoon/evening, so we are often still nursing four times a day despite my earlier efforts at taking us down to three.

I asked my two mama friends who nursed their kids past age 1 for their take on the subject. Well, I only asked the one recently, but I talked to Libby, my guru, a long time ago.  Both her munchkins pretty much weaned themselves sometime around 1-1/2 if I'm remembering correctly....My other friend has three kids, and she nursed the first one until she was 6, at which point her second child was 2, and at which point she said, ENOUGH! and cut them both off.  The third child was then also weaned at 2, and her feeling is that 2 is the magical number because it's when they hit their independent phase anyway. I love that line of thinking!

In addition to pooling all two of my friends, I poked around the internet a little bit and found the following snippet from Anthroposophical Medicine, Breastfeeding and Weaning by Rise Smyth-Freed, RN:

"Benefits from both the process of breastfeeding and from human breastmilk for a human baby are now quite well known.  These benefits include intact immunological development, superior nutrition with resultant superior growth, appropriate maternal-infant bonding, enhanced and superior development of the child into a productive independent human being and reduction of nonproductive illness (chronic illness like allergies, asthma, repetitive ear infections, diabetes and even heart disease).  The American Academy of Pediatrics now asks its Board Certified Pediatricians to recommend breastfeeding for the first two years of a baby's life.  Non-pediatricians may not be aware of these knowledge advances in the field of Pediatrics and other medical specialties like Neonatology, Neurology, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Immunology and Gastroenterology.   The World Health Organization's guidelines are to breastfeed for at least the first 3 years of the child's life.
Risë Smythe-Freed, RN, BS, is a registered nurse since 1981.  She is an Anthroposophical nurse, President of the Anthroposophical Nurses Association of America and Board Member of the Artemisia Association for the Anthroposophical Renewal of Healing."

No, I don't know what anthroposophical means, but since allergies and asthma run in my family, I like the idea of being able to reduce the risk of Hannah ending up with either, so 2 it is!!  If I'm lucky, she'll wean herself sometime in the next 8 months so that I don't actually have to do anything. That would be great. In the meantime, I'd like to get rid of that before bed nursing. I see it as being the hardest to shed, and also, it's the only one that occasionally gets in my way, like if I want to go out to dinner with friends or something and don't want to have to be home by 6:30 to nurse.

Hannah is at least drinking milk now, thanks to Kylie who downed it last time she came over to play. The cow milk seems to make her have poop that burns holes in her butt (like the kind of crazy blisters/sores she was getting in August) so we're sticking with rice milk for the time being.  I don't know why cheese and yogurt don't bother her like that, but they don't...All else is right with Hannah's world at the moment.

Feeding the Ducks with Pappy

We drove to Hagerstown today so Eric could help my mom out with some broken things around her house. I dropped him off and then Hannah and I headed straight for Pangborn Park to meet Pappy. She doesn't do well being strapped into a car seat for long periods so giving her a place to immediately stretch out and run was a priority.  I've always loved Pangborn. It's got great tree coverage, a nice pond, and is a perfect not-too-big-and-not-too-small size.  As a bonus, this is also the park where my dad works so of course he keeps it clean and beautiful!

So, in addition to the previously mentioned bonus points for Pangborn Park, there was one unknown bonus: ducks that are sort of trained.  I was heading for a trash can with an apple core in my hand when my dad suggested we feed it to the ducks. We started with the closest ducks, but they took off so he suggested we go feed the trained ducks.  Trained ducks?? Whaaaaat?  So we started walking over to where this group of ducks was all huddled down beneath a tree. When they noticed us, they all stood up and and quickly waddled to us. I guess they're trained to know that the animals who walk on two legs typically have food. Anyway, when they got close, my dad held up his hand in the air, and the ducks stopped where they were and just waited for us to approach them!! How crazy is that! He's like Dr. Doolittle or something. Then he took out his pocket knife and started cutting up small pieces of the apple for Hannah to feed to them. Those ducks were eating right out of her hand!! It was crazy and awesome and definitely the highlight of our week!! 

After they'd eaten most of the apple, they jumped in the pond for a swim. Hannah thought this was a fantastic idea and tried to follow them.  She was none too happy about being held back. 

After a couple of attempts to jump in, and a number of fits verging on temper tantrums, we decided distraction was our best bet.  Lucky for us, Pappy brought a yellow bouncy ball which we took to the opposite end of the park.  Then Pappy taught Hannah how to kick the ball.

After an hour or so at the park we headed back to my dad's house for lunch and a nap. I wasn't sure how the nap thing would work and figured I had two options: 1) put her in a playpen and sit by that playpen while she screamed for up to an hour until finally falling asleep, 2) lay down with her, latch her on, and cross my fingers that she nursed until she passed out. I opted for option 2, and surprisingly she passed right out and stayed that way for an hour and a half. She would have slept longer but I woke up after about 45 minutes and was getting bored, thirsty, and antsy so once I knew she'd met her 90-minute sleep cycle, I took back my boob which woke her.

Dad brought out a big basket of toys then and we played on the floor for a bit.  At one point, Hannah tucked her lips in, hummed, and leaned in for a kiss. I miraculously had the camera in my hand and, knowing what that humming and lip pursing meant, stole a picture.  She really gives the best kisses. I'm glad Pappy got to experience a Hannah kiss.

Tickle fest.

 

Hannah found this book in the basket, handed it to Pappy, and then laid down on the floor to listen to a story.  After one read through, she started signing "more", and I caught it!! See in the photo below how she's signing more?  How fun is that! 

After a little more playtime we headed over to Grammy's to see how her and Daddy were doing and to get in a little QT with Grammy before heading out. For some reason I didn't pick up my camera there...But Hannah had fun playing with the teeny tiny dog who growled at her, jumping up and down and rolling around in the crib, and crawling in and out of the empty upstairs closet.

It was a fun trip, but I'm not motivated to make it any more often.  Hannah spent much of the car ride yelling and fussing and screaming and trying to get out of her car seat, which just stresses me out and makes me tense and makes the whole ride difficult for me. Eric sat in the back on the way there which helped her a bit I think, but I still stressed when she screamed. I got stuck in the back with her on our way back to Baltimore which, given my propensity for any kind of motion sickness, made it more miserable for me. I had to juggle being car sick with entertaining a very frustrated baby.  Not fun. I called my mom during a particularly bad crying spree (her, not me) in an attempt to prove to her that I have a good reason for never driving back there, but she didn't sympathize, just said lots of people had kids and still found ways to travel, like how she used to get us up at 4:00 a.m. for road trips because then we would still be sleepy and would sleep in the car so she wouldn't have to hear our mouths....I don't see me getting up at 4:00 a.m. any time soon. I do, however, see me continuing along on my current path of refusing to go anyplace that requires us to be in the car for more than 25 minutes.  

Hannah Learns Some More Signs

I know I've been quite the blogging slacker as of late and that has to do both with our general lack of any activity outside of our usual super fun routine and also with my recent organizing obsession.  I bought my neighbor's treadmill on Sunday and have been busy making room for it in our basement.  I posted my old dining room table turned craft table to Craig's List and then delved into my boxes of undergrad and graduate school work that were stashed under the desk.  There were three boxes of that stuff plus a portable filing cabinet thingy filled with old freelance stuff.  I consolidated and pitched all the freelance stuff, all my notes, all my papers (all stuff that I have saved to my hard drive anyway) and filed my old course outlines and teacher handouts in the portable filing cabinet thingy. I'd have pitched those too but I figure those notes will come in handy in the event I ever apply for and land a position teaching any one of those courses.  Once all that was pitched, I stashed all my wayward craft stuff under the desk after months of it being strewn about in various corners of various rooms.  I finished the bulk of this project tonight, the part that affects our living spaces anyway, and am at a good stopping point, so I thought I'd some of Hannah's recent milestones in communication.

Yesterday at the pool Hannah found some toys in the skimmer and busied herself playing with them until one of them one floated back into the skimmer. She panicked and started reaching for it while loudly and obnoxiously saying, "EHHHH!! EHHH!!!" which in Hannah speak means "GIVE ME THAT" or, in this case, get me that. As usual I looked at her and calmly said, "What is it? Do you need help?" while doing the sign for help. (For those of you not proficient in ASL, here's a photo of the sign for help that I found on this website.)

Sign language for help.

Hannah nodded her hand and attempted the sign.  She put the palms of her hands together with her thumbs up and moved her hands up together.  Amazing!!! My child is a genius!! Wahooooo!!!! I made a big deal out of her first attempt at signing help and applauded her  profusely before fishing the toy out of the skimmer.  Her little brain cogs started really rolling then.  She pushed the toy back into the skimmer, looked at me with a big grin on her face, and signed "help."  How awesome is that?!!!  So I applauded again and started really playing it up by saying stuff like, "Of course I'll help you get your toy out of the skimmer! Here you go, mommy helped." At that I threw in the sign for mommy.  Then I said, "Can you say 'thank you, mommy'?" and threw in the signs for thank you and mommy.  We repeated that scenario over and over again, making a game out of her ability to sign for help, and then during the bit where I thank myself for her, she put the palm of her hand up to her chin very deliberately and smiled big again!!! What's more genius-y than a genius??? That's my banana!!  (If you don't know it, here's the sign for thank you which I stole from this website):

Sign language for thank you.

Then later in the day, she picked up the sign for drink. In addition to this being her third learned sign in one day, this is one we've been working on for a looooonnnnng time.  She modifies this one by putting her index finger to her lips and tilting her head back. (A pic if you're interested, this one from the Dummies.com website):

Sign language for drink.

Hannah is not mastering control of her spoken words at all, which is fine, no rush, but I have to admit that I am LOVING the fact that she's picking up on sign language!  It is so flippin' awesome to be communicating with her, to know what she wants rather than have to hear her very loud, very insistent EHHH-ing which stresses me out while I try to guess the object of the EHHHH. But the awesomeness of this is not just how it benefits me, it's more how it benefits her.  I think for her, and for all babies I guess, communication is like this secret puzzle or code to crack, and watching her eyes light up every time she cracks the code is beyond amazing.

Now that she's catching on, I guess I need to increase my own signing vocabulary. I'm guessing that now that she's made the connection, it won't take her long to blaze through the handful of signs that I know and then resort back to driving me nuts with her constant EHHHHH-ing! 

15-Months Today

I took this cute picture of Hannah hanging out in her crib yesterday and was logging on to share it when I realized that today is the 5th of the month which means that she is exactly 15 months old today.  I had planned on doing my next baby pic comparisons at 15, 18, and then 24 months, but I don't have another baby pic of Eric until he's 17 months so we'll just do 17 and 24 months.  I do, however, have baby pics of me at 15, 16, and 17 months so lace up your boot straps and get ready for a baby Terri overload!

As you'll see in the 17 month shot, Hannah looks A TON like her daddy at this age.

So, no criticism on my mom who is amazing and awesome, but why the hell was I eating Burger King at 15 months old???? GROSS!!!!

Hannah's Got a Sleep Sack

I ordered this sleep sack for Hannah about a month ago and am loving it!  I was a little unsure of it when ordering and spent some time waffling back and forth and trying to engage Eric in my waffling before giving up and hitting the submit order button. It was only $20 so it's not like we'd be out too much if it didn't work out.  When it arrived and I had unwrapped it, my uncertainty heightened:  the dang thing looks like it could easily fit a 6-year-old in spite of the size reading 18-24 months. I was worried that all that bagginess would get bunched up under her while she was sleeping and annoy her enough to want to communicate her annoyances to us in the form of very loud screams at very early hours of the morning, but nope. It never bothered her. She didn't even look at us or it funny the first time we put it on her.

Hannah modeling her Halo SleepSack before nap time today.

Trying to dress her for sleeping is by far one of my most stressful daily tasks.  She always seemed hot in the summer, and we kept the thermostat on 78 degrees, but I worried that she'd feel a little chilly if she were just in a onesie or a onesie and shorts. Everybody likes at least a sheet over them, right? It's just comforting. So I kept her in thin cotton zip-up footed sleepers.  I think sometimes it was too much (her sweaty self was my clue), but I couldn't bring myself to dress her in any less.

The problem with cooler weather is that her room ranges from 1-5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house, including the hallway right outside her room where the thermostat sits. My guess is that underneath that very old plaster wall in her room, there is a miniature arctic playground complete with polar bears and penguins who radiate that arctic playground into her room.  I would like to replace that arctic playground with some heavy duty insulation but tearing out the plaster wall is not an option at the moment. Instead, I put a thermometer in there about a month ago and have been studying the situation ever since, tweaking the thermostat by a degree here and another degree there while monitoring the temperature in her room in an effort to discover the lowest possible setting that we can keep the thermostat on without letting her room drop below 68 degrees.  I was hoping to find a rule like "it's always 4 degrees cooler in Hannah's room than in the hallway" or something like that, but a rule like that would make life too easy so of course no such rule exists. So far, my research has shown that if the thermostat is on 71 or lower, Hannah's room remains 4 degrees cooler (so it'll be 67 if the thermostat is on 71).  But if we bump the thermostat up to 72, her room heats up to 71 and stays there.  How weird is that??

In an ideal world, we'd keep the thermostat at 68 degrees like we always used to, but the thermostat at 68 means 64 in Hannah's room which is 4 degrees cooler than I'm comfortable with, and that 4 degrees keeps me up at night.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a summer girl all the way and would love to keep the thermostat at 72 constantly (and since we signed up for Clean Currents, 100% wind power about a year ago, I don't have to feel too guilty about wasting energy), but I don't want to have to pay to keep it that cozy in here...

Fortunately, unlike her mama who HATES all things cold (except ice cream), Hannah doesn't seem to mind it and is actually sleeping better now than ever. She's down without much of a fuss between 7:15 and 7:30 and sleeps straight through the night until between 7:00 and 7:30 the next morning (7:45 on Tuesday!).  How amazing is that!!  This has been constant even though the temperature of her room has wavered between 66 and 71 while I've been doing my research/thermostat experiment.  The pajamas I've settled on is one of those fleece blanket sleepers with the feet, a onesie beneath it, and her sleep sack over it.  

I'll keep monitoring the thermometer, especially as the temperature outside drops, but I'll probably stop sending Eric into her room in the middle of the night with a flashlight and strict instructions to tip toe in his most ninja-like impression just to check the temperature.

Hannah and Her Grannah