Intrepid Murmurings

Hush little baby

Nap Regime 2007 is on hiatus. I stopped keeping track of the crib and nap minutes, because it was too depressing and obsessive. It was making me feel like crap, worse than if I just admit that she is not a good sleeper and live with it. Maybe if we just kept at it, practicing and repeating the routine for weeks and weeks, she would get used to transferring. But maybe she wouldn't, and it just seems so fruitless and frustrating to spend all the time (and deal with a cranky baby day after day) and see no results.

She has been taking naps, usually somewhere between 20 to 40 minutes, once or twice a day. And nursing down in the bed works sometimes, so thats good. Nursing or walking her down in the wrap works well too, and is better than her sleeping on my lap because I can move around, so we've been doing a lot of that too. Yesterday, Lonnie got her down in the crib with a bottle and no crying whatsoever, transfer and all! She was there for about 25 minutes when the FedEx man knocked, causing the dog to bark ferociously, and she awoke.

We are trying to keep the bedtime early, around 6:30-7:00, and I think it is working. Getting her to sleep has not taken too long, somewhere between 25 min to an hour (trust me, that is nothing compared to the 2-3 hour marathons that we were getting there for awhile). Some nights she wakes up a lot after that, needing to be nursed down again and again (these only take about 15 min though), but some nights there is only one or the occasional no wakeups before 10-11ish when I go to bed. Yeehaw!

Right now, unfortunately, she is screaming her head off upstairs with Lonnie, and has been for about 45 minutes. Lonnie gave her a bottle and took a short nap with her, I think, but she has had enough and is really putting up a fuss. She wants me and I am not there, and she is royally pissed about it. I wish she could handle being away from me for more than 20 minutes at a time. I really do. Geesh! This happens again and again.

On a cheerier note, she has been really talkative in her happy moments, too, and has started saying all sorts of consonant sounds, like ba and ma and la. I work with her on the ma ma ma more than the others. She is really starting to love the eating, too, and the baby led weaning concept is really working for us. I will post more on that soon.

Bonelos Manglo
This morning, Lonnie had a hankering for doughnuts. He found this recipe online, in all its dairy-free goodness. It is originally from Guam. He tried it. Delish! They are going to be gone by tonight because I can't stop eating them....

Bonelos Manglo
2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 tablespoons sugar 3/4 cup coconut milk (canned can be sweetened)
1. Mix ingredients until it comes together to form dough. 2. Roll on a board with a rolling pin until 1/3 inch thick then cut into long strips about a half inch apart, then cutting it into diamonds. 3. Preheat oil in deep frying pan then place diamond shape dough into it, turning occasionally until dough is golden brown. 4. Remove, let cool on brown paper bags or paper towels. 5. When cool dust with powdered sugar or regular granulated sugar.

Notes: Lonnie used self-rising flour and just a pinch of baking powder, instead of regular flour and the full amount of baking powder, because we have it on hand and are trying to use it up. He used canned coconut milk, and did not add any extra sugar, though the dough could have been a little sweeter, maybe. But, since we doused them in a good layer of cinnamon sugar at the end, we didn't really notice! He also didn't cut them into diamonds, like it mentions above, but used a biscuit cutter to make round ones (without holes). Shape, to me, does not a doughnut make.