Mystified by Sleep

"Whoever came up with the saying 'sleep like a baby' obviously never had one." I read this quote the other day and couldn't help but laugh. How incredibly true. We've been dealing with some crazy sleep patterns for the past two weeks, and I must admit it is getting kind of tiring. Lena seems to have two or three good nights a week, where she sleeps 6 hours at a time, feeds around 3 a.m., and then sleeps another good chunk. But these good nights are inevitably followed by several very bad nights where she decides to wake up every hour on the hour to eat and fuss and poop and pee, and do whatever else babies do when everybody else in the house just wants to sleep. It's hard when Lena doesn't sleep well, partly because Dan and I don't get any sleep and become cranky and unhappy, but also because we know she can do better than wake up every hour, and we just can't seem to understand why she's reverting back to bad sleep habits.

Tonight it's just mom and Lenabel for the first time ever. The dog-sitter taking care of Gus and Charly while Grandma's on vacation had a family emergency and had to go out of town, so Daniel is sleeping over at Grandma's house and taking care of the dogs until she gets home tomorrow. Lucky daddy gets to sleep uninterrupted all night long, and he definitely deserves the break. Let's hope Lena sleeps well tonight and gives mama a much needed break too!

Lena's Naming Ceremony

Today we celebrated Lena's birth with a traditional Jewish naming ceremony, performed by Rabbi Barry Citron. With this ceremony we wanted to take the opportunity to explain why we chose the name Lena.

We named Lena after Daniel's father's mother, Lena Spirn, who was born in 1904 in New York City. Lena was a beloved mother of three sons and grandmother to seven grandchildren. Without a doubt her husband, sons, and her grandchildren were the most important part of her life. Though she didn't have more than a high school education, she had a sharp and insightful mind, something that she certainly transferred to her sons. She died last year at the age of 105. Lena's Hebrew name was Leah.

So we hope that Lena shares with her great grandmother a love of family, a quick and thoughtful mind, and a long healthy life.

Lena's Naming Ceremony and party were a huge success due to help from so many family members and friends. Thank you Grandma Marion and Grandpa Irwin for letting us use the party room in your beautiful new condo building. Thanks also for the many food runs to Costco! Thanks Naomi, Talia, and Levi for helping set up the party room! Thanks to Baba Delia for the delicious empanadas, and to Zeide Ben for the yummy bagels and coffee. A big thanks to Baba Dorita for her exquisite Torta de Chocolinas! And thanks Christina, Elise, and Holly for dressing Lena this morning, and picking out such a lovely outfit for her big day. Thank you everybody for joining us on such a happy day.

Baba Dorita and Zeide Ricardo flew in from Argentina on Wednesday, just in time for Rosh Hashana.

Granda Marion and Grandpa Irwin also arrived from New Jersey on Wednesday afternoon, and all of us including the Pesky's got together for the New Year at Baba Delia's house. Baba Delia and Baba Dorita cooked a fantastic meal including Matzo Ball Soup, Brisket, and 4 Chickens! Poor little Lenabel just had breastmilk...

We had a beautiful Rosh Hashana, filled with our family and so much love. It was very special to have all of the grandparents and some great grandparents there, as well as all of the cousins! It was so much fun to watch Talia, Levi, and Ayla play together in the living room, and we can't wait for Lenabel to join them as soon as she can.

Baba Dorita, Zeide Ricardo, Grandma Marion and Grandpa Irwin will be staying in Minnesota for the next two weeks, and we are super excited to share Lenabel with them. B. Dorita and Z. Ricardo came over tonight and we had dinner at Punch Pizza, followed by a Daniel and Deborah wedding slide show, followed by a bath for Lenabel. Here's a cutie pie photo taken after bath time (towel courtesy of Aunt Naomi and Uncle Greg) :

Sleep Deprivation Adds Up

This past week was pretty rough to say the least. Lena got her two month shots last Tuesday and turned into an entirely different baby thereafter. She was fussy, crying, hard to soothe, and hard to put to nap/sleep.

This means that mom and dad slowly deteriorated into an unfortunate state of extreme exhaustion, as spending 24 hours a day holding, feeding, rocking, jiggling, and shushing a baby can get really really hard. We were so lucky to have Bruno, Alicia, and Ayla come over yesterday and help us out a bit with Lena and give us a much needed break. It's funny how you don't realize how far gone you are until somebody comes in and saves you for a minute or two, and then you realize just how much you needed that hour of sleep.

It's possible that her week long bout of crankyness was due to the shots, or it might be that she was going through a growth spurt. It is also possible that it just took her a week to process Emily and Bobby's wedding, especially the dancing and hip hop music she was rocking too way past her bed time!

Who knows, but we're glad she seems to be getting back to her usual self. Today she was able to take a three hour nap by herself in her co-sleeper, and we were also able to put her down for sleep without too much angst. We'll see how many times she gets up tonight. Last night it she was up at midnight, 3, 5, and 7. If we can get rid of the midnight waking, we'll be happy.

Auntie Em and Bobby Get Married

One of Deborah's best friends Emily got married this weekend. It was Lenabel's first wedding and she had a grand ole time! Although she is isn't old enough yet to drink, eat, or dance, she seemed to enjoy being passed around from person to person, and especially liked being held by the gorgeous bride.

Lena was so well behaved that mom and dad even got to dance a little jig on their own, while Bobby's step-mom took care of babe. It was our first dance together since our wedding, and we had so much fun, we didn't want to leave the dance floor. But by 9 p.m. it was time to leave the growing dance party and hit the road back home.

After a long day filled with so much love and fun, we gave Lena a bath at 10 p.m. and she was asleep by 11. All in all a perfect summer day.

Cousin Hannah Comes to Visit

Two weeks ago we were lucky to get a visit from cousin Hannah, Aunt Vivian, and Uncle Rich. They came to meet Lena and also spend some time with the Pesky family. We all had a great time, especially Hannah and Talia. Soon Lena will be old enough to join in the fun with the kids. Here is a picture of the kids. We'll share pictures from Aunt Roslyn's trip in our next post.

Happy Days

Lena's growing so fast we can hardly keep up with her. She has started smiling at us and we've been trying to catch one on camera but it's been kind of difficult, her smiles are so fleeting. We'll try and post a picture soon when we manage to snap one.

Also in new developments, Lena put herself to sleep on her own today! Well, kind of. After feeding and rocking her to sleep, Mom set Lena down in her co-sleeper, only to have to pick her up ten minutes later, eyes fluttering awake. After a couple more times of this, Mom gave Lena a nuk, put her down in the co-sleeper, and walked away. Lo and behold, no whining or crying or grunting from the bedroom. Just a quiet, happy, sleeping baby. Amazing.

But it's not that perfect, she's still waking us up at night every 3 hours. We've got to work on that!