life with baby – Page 7 – Myriad & Sundry

5 Months Old

August 14, 2013 No Comments

We’ve made it to 5 months old! The next month seems like a big milestone itself to me: dramatic reduction in the likelihood of SIDS, sitting up, playing and personalities. I just love 6 months and forward. Don’t get me wrong: I will undoubtedly miss the months of wee little baby, squishy and flexible and pliable. But this is when things will start to get fun.

And speaking of fun: some of it is beginning now! Coraline is actually doing some playing rather than simply observing. She is an expert at tummy time, far more than Jameson ever was, because she loves to be on her belly. She even sleeps that way now! She learned how to roll back to belly this month, and that’s all she does.

This also means that we have ended swaddling officially, pretty much shortly after she turned 4 months. I will probably miss that, and her little ear hairs on the side, going away the most. Speaking of sleep… this girl is trouble.

She will unexpectedly sleep through the night one night and turn around to be up most of the night the following… it’s been difficult, to say the least. I put up the mesh pads so she can’t get her arms and legs stuck through the slats just yesterday and she slept through, thankfully. This never bothered Jameson, but does seem to bother her. That, and getting frustrated when she does want to return to her back and doesn’t know how to roll that way yet. In addition, if she gets too frustrated, it’s near impossible to get her to sleep so we are always watching for that fine line of trying to get her to go back to sleep on her own without feeding her and getting too frustrated. I’m looking forward to the end of this stage.

Such is her strength that even while lying down on her back (which isn’t very often anymore!), she can lift her whole chest up like she is trying to sit up! She has terrible balance, but she loves when I grab her fingers and pull her upright into the sitting (or even standing) position. She gives the biggest gummy smiles when I do that, and when I kiss her cheeks loudly by her ear.

Coraline also found her feet this month, to the entertainment of all! She even occasionally chews on her toes, which I think is awesome.

She is okay in the excersaucer, which we started putting her in this month after her first time at daycare. She likes it okay, but I think will like it more when she can stand easily. Right now it’s harder on her with a pillow propping her feet up to the appropriate height.

Coraline is also practicing holding things with two hands and will give a funny face when she first puts her toy in her mouth as if she’s say, “eww what is that!?” and then… “mmm that feels good on my toothless little gums!”

Coraline is officially taking bottles consistently at daycare, but still refuses at home or anywhere else but nursing from me. However, we’ve all enjoyed being able to feed Coraline her first foods, which is fun. She got the hang of it quickly and while she doesn’t eat too much yet, she enjoys what she gets. And on those thankfully rare occasions now that she has trouble with the bottle at daycare, they are able to supplement with cereal.

We’ve enjoyed a lot of outdoor play this month, from her first time in the pool to tea parties with Jameson and Lily. The weather has continued to stay on the cooler side for August, but we do hope to get one more time or two on the water bouncer.

Coraline is a delight to be around when she’s awake and not tired. She rarely if ever cries for hunger, and only calls out when she wants to hang with her family or gets tired. She’s so very smilely, and we love that she has finally found that thumb (at least, most of the time). I’m looking forward to teaching her the sippy (hopefully — if she continues to refuse the bottle at home!), and beginning to explore more food, as well as rolling the other way, and… of course… maybe a bit better sleep. Pretty please?

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First Foods

August 7, 2013 No Comments

Coraline tried her first foods a couple weeks ago. We started with oatmeal, baby cereal single grain of course, as we did with Jameson. With Jameson, who we found had a pretty big span between bowel movements, we wanted the additional fiber in his first foods that comes from oatmeal and brown rice. While Coraline doesn’t have this issue, we wanted to just the same make sure that she didn’t have any bowel troubles as we transitioned into food. We haven’t had any, and she is doing really well.

She gets oatmeal a couple times a week at dinner, and unlike with Jameson, we also brought it to the daycare for the days that she doesn’t eat from the bottle. That way, we can all feel good that she is still getting some food in her system! Thankfully, in the past two weeks, we seem to have overcome that difficulty (at daycare anyway).

Coraline makes a bit of a face every time we feed her, like she has to remember what this is and oh yeah, I have to open my mouth to get it! She does well with all textures now, from thicker to thinner. Most times she does better with it a little thicker so it doesn’t come right back out! We love our little chipmunk; her big cheeks give the impression that she’s storing up all that food in there, though she is adept at swallowing now and rarely if ever gags.

By the end of her first cereal, she was reaching to get that spoon in her mouth herself!

While I know breastfed babies should wait until 6 months before starting food, the issues we have had with her eating at daycare prompted us to start early to no ill effect. She doesn’t have it frequently yet but is getting used to the spoon and textures, a perfect first step before we really begin feeding her food in earnest in a month or so.

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Summer Cool Down

July 26, 2013 No Comments

We have recently experienced a cool down to our summer which had thus far been pretty scorching. It’s a little out of sync then but I wanted to share what we did on a couple summer days to cool down!

We broke out our waterpark! We’ve had the waterpark for a long time, a couple jobs ago for each of us since we worked at the toy company. It stayed in a box until just a couple weeks ago. The ages on this is 5 and up, but Jameson took right to it.

Neighbors joined us for the fun in the morning through the afternoon and it turned into an all-day impromptu outdoor cookout since we had burgers for lunch and pizza on the grill in the evening!

Coraline hung out outside in the bumbo chair for a good 20 minutes before she got tired and was due a nap anyway.

For about 20 times, I had to slide down with Jameson in order for him to want to go down. Confession: I didn’t mind at all. The waterpark was a blast for adults, too!

The daddies were a little big for going down that slide, but that didn’t stop them from going down a couple times each. Don’t worry, everyone was well under the supposed weight limit, though the top seemed to sink dangerously when they were up there, haha!

The next task was teaching him to go up the ladder part so that I could go up before him (much easier than going up behind him and climbing over him to get him in my lap). He got the hang of it in a few tries, and shortly we were just calling out to him to make sure he used the handles!

It was a very short step from there to get him going by himself! Which went quickly from standard to sliding down on his stomach. “I go down on my belly” he yelled when he did it (no warning of course, I nearly had a heart attack). “I bounced!” he also yelled, excitedly. Yep, he did get some air going down that slide.

Coraline was up from her nap and quite enjoyed hanging out in the umbrella stroller watching everyone from the shade. We shortly moved her up to proper shade under the porch umbrella where she could also sit eye to eye with Peyton.

Our friends from Florida came up to visit family and work a bit, so Bobby came to play in the afternoon too. He loved letting the water out of the pool (An occasional necessity due to the slight slope in our yard, we had to eliminate some of the water when it reached the height limit. He loved to help, of course)

Bobby had no fear and went down the slide himself from the get-go!

We all were hungry from the day’s activity and nearly all of our three pizza’s were consumed. Poor Peyton was exhausted and passed out in the high chair! It was quite a day.

The second time we put the waterpark up, it was a little cloudy so Coraline even got to experience the water with her very first time in a pool!

It was a little chillier that day and the water was cold though so I was impressed that she didn’t give us the stink eye until she was in it for a bit. (Unlike Jameson who screamed the moment we put him in cool water his first time)

We quickly dried her off, and after her nap she got to come back out and enjoy the warmth in the stroller. We didn’t make her suffer too much in the cold water!

I brought out some squirt guns purchased at Target for $1 and we added those to the mix which Jameson loved. He ran around yelling “squirt squirt!” which was adorable since he only got it squirt about half the time. It takes some strength in those little fingers!

We had a pretty exhausted dude that day, coming down with a cold. He actually relaxed next to daddy for a while in the pool. We sure do love this waterpark! It’s been so much fun and made weekends at home feel like vacation.

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4 Months Happy

July 20, 2013 No Comments

This month, Coraline slept through her first fireworks, enjoyed the company of friends at a kiddie park, and spent time with family for Father’s Day.

Coraline spent this month trying to roll over unsuccessfully. She really seems to enjoy hanging out on her side, chewing on hands or toys but without a lot of motivation to go further. One weekend she was really struggling with effort but when she was unsuccessful, she seemed to have given up and is very content with however we put her. She likes being on her belly much more than Jameson ever did, but like him spends more time on her back batting at toys.

I know it won’t be too long before she really discovers her feet, but I love her on her back using all of her limbs to get at something.

We borrowed a bouncer from friends, even though we already own one. She really seems to like this one better (it tilts her back a bit more and puts more toys in her reach). This is really where she started reach and grabbing, before doing much on her playmat. By the end of her fourth month, she was really starting to try and get things other than her hands in her mouth.

Her chubby cheeks just get me every time. She is however still about average in terms of weight, coming in at 13 pounds, 2 ounces on her 4 month appointment.

She still absolutely prefers breastfeeding to bottle feeding, and in fact recently refused the bottle from any of the teachers other than her regular provider (the head teacher of the room) who had to leave early one day. The doctor suggested that we stop feeding her overnight since we were just perpetuating a habit that would continue until we made it stop… so I did, and saw immediate effect in terms of sleeping, but not in terms of changing eating habits.

This little girl definitely has all our hearts (even Jameson’s!) and we all love seeing her grow big and strong. I’m not, other than the terrible habit of comparing babies, too interested in seeing her roll over. I wouldn’t mind keeping her at this stage for longer, though I already see it disappearing.

Leaving us is the nap-anywhere mentality (even though they were just half hour naps), as well as the content without doing anything. Though that is still there a lot, she enjoys being stimulated with toys in hand or hands in mouth or both. Which is all to the good, except for when toys drop to the floor!

And I leave with this, a picture of Buddha baby. Cracks me up every time!

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Bottlefeeding

July 17, 2013 No Comments

Not pictured: Dr. Browns; purchased or borrowed but not used: MAM and Similac bottles.

These are all the bottles (and nipples of different flows) that we tried with Coraline, except for Dr. Brown’s which I gave to our neighbor who uses them after Coraline refused. It was quite an ~~adventure~~ trial introducing bottle feeding to Coraline.

This was Coraline’s very first bottle, Tommee Tippee, around 3 weeks old, the very same time frame that we did for Jameson. She took it really well, and we all had warm fuzzies that she would have no issues with the bottle. Like Jameson, we opted to try her on the bottle once a week or so until we got closer to me going back to work, so a week went by before we tried her second bottle.

It was all a train wreck from there.

Little Miss Coraline refused her second bottle, screaming. We knew that she could take the bottle, which made it more frustrating than I think we would’ve been if she had refused from the beginning.

We tried a series of different bottles. We tried different positions, different people, and eventually different nipple types and flows. We had moderate success (read: 1/2 ounce after 45 minutes of trying) on the mOmma bottle (the funny looking round one) a few weeks later. However, feedings required extreme patience, complete awake-ness from Coraline (not tired at all), and no extreme hunger. Long term, we didn’t think that would work at daycare, so we continued trying.

The next bottle that seemed to work better for us was the Playtex Nurser, the drop in liners and a latex nipple. We first tried the silicon nipple, because I wanted latex to be a last resort. They don’t hold up as well, and I read how more exposure to latex can lead to an allergy. She actually didn’t seem to mind the nipple, but spent most of the time chomping on it and pushing it out of her mouth. However, any step away from the screaming was success, so I decided to buy more and try the latex nipples which texture seemed to be closer to natural.

Around this time was her 2 month doctor’s appointment, so we were starting to really feel the pressure to get her better with the bottle prior to me going back to work in 4 short weeks. The doctor gave us a sheet of tips and tricks to try with baby. Honestly, this sheet was helpful because all the ideas were in once place, but mostly they were a confirmation of what we had done, which is basically: some babies like this, others like the opposite, so… TRY EVERYTHING. Everything I read online was sound advice and all of it was on the sheet the doctor gave us.

The other reason the sheet was helpful was that I was able to pass it on to our daycare provider because she was not, in fact, ready to drink from bottles well by the time she had to.

The latex nipples were better, but she didn’t seem inclined to suck, so we tried another one of the recommendations on the sheet, which was try a faster flow nipple. She did even better with that (read: 1/2 ounce every time we offered the bottle instead of every once in a while, and down to 20-30 minutes instead of 45 to take it).

And that was where we left it when she had to start school. No more than a 1/2 ounce out of a bottle she didn’t scream at.

Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling very good about it. However, her first day that she already did better than she ever did at home. She did a whole 1 ounce! We got our hopes up that she would quickly figure this out and after a week would be eating like a champ.

However, we continued to have low milk intake day after day, and after a week at daycare, the baby who had been sleeping through the night began waking up (and continued through 4 months old). Our daycare provider decided to try a bottle they had there. She successfully took all the milk out of it! We were all excited until we found out it was a discontinued bottle (Tri-flow Bottles by Munchkin — I contacted them after searching online without success and discovered they had been discontinued for 5 years).

We took note though that she seemed to like the fast flow on it, and I opted to buy one more bottle which is similar, the Playtex VentAire with fast flow nipple.

We were thankful to have a daycare provider willing to clean out the one bottle after each feeding; after some more success that week on the VentAire, we decided to try the Tommee Tippee bottles that we already had so many of, this time in the fast flow nipple. We had success one day! But just one.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to last. Since then, we went back to the VentAire since it is the only one consistently getting reasonable milk intake. However, every Monday is like starting over. 6oz, 7oz, 10-12oz by Wednesday; every week. On the weekends we don’t do much attempts at bottle feeding since she has made it clear that she will not eat then. We had to skip a feeding one day because of her refusal and I had drank some alcohol. We were even at a different house and I was inside while she was out.

I have tried to supplement her with extra feedings in the evening and a “dream feed” before I went to bed, but that started to delay her eating until later in the day at school as well as at home on the weekend; wake ups are continuing even with a 10pm feeding.

Instead, we are planning on weaning her of the extra feeds based on our doctor’s recommendation and get back to our original schedule and eliminate overnight eating entirely. I know she can do it, since she was doing it pre-daycare days. I hope that she moves to eating more from the bottle during the day. I purchased more of the VentAire and we have decided that is the best we’re going to get. I can only hope that eventually she’ll get better at the bottle, or move more quickly to food.

It’s frustrating, knowing that she doesn’t like the bottle as much as she likes me. However, I am grateful that with Coraline eating less from the bottle, it has allowed me to build up a stash of milk that I don’t need to worry about supplying her with food each week.

Interested in some slightly used bottles? Check out my ebay listings (Playtex Nursers already sold): Lot of Tommee Tippee Bottles & Nipples; and Lot of Misc Bottles

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Baby Faces

July 9, 2013 No Comments

Coraline and Jameson are slowly interacting more and more. Jameson helped push her swing the other day and Coraline gave him smiles directly at him!

She’s getting more expressions too, and sometimes makes short little laughs.

Right now, I love smooching her loudly on her cheeks which will turn her mouth into a big “O” of surprise and enjoyment.

Jameson isn’t always sure about her when she’s moving around and happens to touch him (He claimed that she spit on him in the car — it was a sneeze);

But, on his terms, he loves playing with her.

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Father’s Day Weekend

June 26, 2013 No Comments

For Father’s Day this year we spent Saturday with Brian’s parents and Sunday with family, which was nice and not a lot of pressure to go places and do things! We did wind up doing a lot more than planned when everyone was behaving on Sunday, which is the best way to go about things I think. Set the bar low!

It had been a while since our last cookout at Brian’s parents house, and Jameson loved having Grandma and Aunt Melissa to follow him around and play with.

Grandma even had Jameson’s big boy bed set up there so he could see that Coraline was going to use his old crib; that seemed just fine by him but we’ll see when the time comes for him to actually use it 🙂 Coraline slept like an angel in the crib. However, she did have some trouble with the bottle again which we won’t dwell on too much. Suffice it to say, she did have to skip a feeding because she refused the bottle and I had some wine, so the last hour or so of our visit was less pleasant.

Up til that point though we had a great time and dinner was excellent!

I love that I finally got some photos of some of the things Jameson loves to do at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, which include throwing rocks in the creek and going under the “tree house” looking for pine cones.

Sunday was pure spontaneity. After opening gifts from Jameson and Coraline (ice cream maker was a hit!), we went out to eat about 20 minutes away at one of our go-to restaurants, The Winking Lizard.

The restaurant has a paved trail behind it (the Towpath), so when not only Coraline was well behaved and awake but also Jameson (who actually wanted to sit in a highchair!), well, we jumped at the chance with two happy kids and took them out on the trail walking for another half hour or so.

Coraline passed out napping and woke back up on our way home but still seemed happy even though it was near her feeding time, so we dared one more stop at a frozen yogurt shop where dads got free bowls. Win win win!

It was a wonderful day with perfect weather, children, and food. I am not sure that that will happen again for a long time. We are so blessed to have such a happy, content baby who loves to watch and look around.

And… obligatory Father’s Day photos were also a little spontaneous. Jameson didn’t want to take any, so he got tickled. I got risky and stood over them on the bed with the camera, over tickled toddlers and an infant. No one got hurt, phew.

We sure do love you, daddy, and had the best weekend with you!

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Coraline’s Nursery

June 25, 2013 No Comments

Coraline moved into the room that was formerly Jameson’s; a gender neutral room in yellow and green. She seems to enjoy the leaf mobile I made more than Jameson did; but like Jameson she adores the little moving black birds over the glider chair the most.

A few differences in her room is the white dresser we purchased for her; Jameson took his with him to his new room. We also purchased a nightstand that will go with it once she is old enough for a big girl bed (we have a pink princess bed from Little Tikes waiting for her).

The dresser takes up a lot of space, so there is no room for a bookshelf right now. However, there will be plenty of space once we’re done with the changing table, so she will have one in her room eventually.

We also have cross stitch work hanging up. The two small circle artwork below are ones that I made for my grandmother; when she passed away, I took them back. Above, the floral work is one my grandma made but never framed. I had it framed and hung it in Coraline’s room.

I have big plans for her room once it transitions to a big girl room. I want to have it pink, white and black. I think the black accents will give it a more sophisticated look that will grow with her longer; and I want to limit the pink to the bed and a few other accents so that color can change when she outgrows it. For now, the room is perfect for a baby, and I enjoy the beautiful dresser with extra storage.

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Coraline is 3 Months Old

June 18, 2013 No Comments

This month Coraline started sleeping through the night just before my return to work, and stayed that way. It amazed us all since she is still having trouble with bottles that she gets enough during the day still that she is not up at night. She does get up really early sometimes, between 4:30-5:30, but when she’s up that early I am able to put her back to sleep most of the time. But she can and does sleep up to 12 hours!

Of her napping schedule, I cannot say the same. She takes half hour naps, and sometimes longer if I have her in the newborn napper which I try to avoid using too frequently since they don’t use that at daycare. She doesn’t necessarily fall asleep in her car seat or stroller; she is frequently quietly alert instead.

Luckily, she does seem to be getting enough sleep and is cheerful during her extended awake times except toward the evening when she may become overtired. Even then, Brian and I frequently comment on how much more mellow she is than Jameson. We no long bemoan the lack of a pacifier, since she is content without. She doesn’t smile as frequently as Jameson did, but she has much longer calm periods, happy to look around and observe as he never did. They continue to be so different from one another.

She is grasping things with her reflexes, but not reaching for anything yet. She did, however, finally release some of those fists to get a finger in her mouth! Over a couple days prior to turning 3 months old, she had started occasionally finding it. For her photo shoot, she made a face when she found her finger, but by the end of that evening, she was loudly sucking on her index finger with enjoyment.

We still swaddle to sleep, but I think it won’t be long now before she will be a self soother.

Coraline enjoys sitting up, and is really enjoying the bouncer seat (not generally turned on though) and the bumbo chair; we use the swing much less and usually only as another place to put her while taking care of Jameson upstairs. She likes to sit on laps or walk around. Like Jameson, she appears to love to be outside.

We also started using up to 6 month clothing this month, which seems so much earlier than Jameson. She’s sturdy and has adorable little rolls. We had a rash on her chest we were dealing with that finally seems to have dissipated with a different lotion. Baby acne is gone, but the flakey cradle cap of her growing skull appears frequently and she has lost a good portion of her hair on the back of her head that gives a similar effect that Jameson had. She doesn’t look too much like a little old man though because of her little chubby cheeks and the hair she managed to retain on the top of her head.

Coraline loves bath time, always silent and staring in the mirror for the entire event. She still has dark hair, blue eyes and a gummy, wet grin, so she has a pretty face to look at!

While we are all sad that my time at home has ended, Coraline doesn’t seem the worse for wear thus far since I try and feed her 1-2 times in the morning and at least twice every evening. I know this month and next, things will start to get exciting with reaching and rolling. I can’t wait!

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12 Weeks: Returning to Work

June 8, 2013 No Comments

This week was a hard week; Brian left last Friday morning for a trade show and then a conference and was gone the entire full week before and during my first day back at work. Coraline was great and at least slept through the night for me which was amazing!

I am so very thankful for family to help me through; on Friday, Brian’s mom came over to watch Jameson and put him to bed while I took Coraline out to a bachelorette party (I know, I know).

I was not the only one with a baby there; there was one pregnant person. Plus, I only stayed for the early eating part and not the drinking and dancing part when they left the house. Coraline was fabulous, sitting for an hour and a half looking around. She was propped up by zebra print pillows which she was fascinated with, and I was so happy to be able to see friends from college who I hadn’t seen in at least a year or more.

When we got home, she was unhappy and overtired, but all was well and she slept through the night again! I dared hold my breath for more, and she has actually slept through the night the entire WEEK. But I am not optimistic, as she continues to struggle with the bottle, that she won’t start waking up at night to eat. But I will be thankful for now and appreciate the full nights sleep I got every single night while Brian was gone.

Saturday morning I got everyone to the farmer’s market to pick up our share which included lots of lovely greens. We didn’t stay to peruse after that though because Jameson kept trying to splash through mud puddles and pick up rocks.

Brian’s mom picked up Jameson around noon to spend the rest of the day, night, and all day Sunday with her and papa!

Coraline took a few beautiful sleeping photos that day which I was excited about since I didn’t get any for her newborn ones. We also went to a birthday party where she was a little less good than she had been the night before, and I enjoyed a lovely evening to myself.

Except I was bored and lonely. Dare I say it? It was hard to be there by myself, no Jameson or Coraline awake to occupy my time and finished reading my books with no shows to watch.

Sunday I watched two movies and held Coraline most of the day since she refused to nap. Nothing much else to say about Sunday except that I didn’t really mind it; it seemed like “the last” of things since Monday she was going to start school. I know we’ll have weekends, but all the same it was bittersweet.

I did put both kids to bed by myself on Sunday which wasn’t too bad. Coraline yelled, Jameson got distracted by her, and it seemed it might never end. Thankfully it did, and the morning getting ready for Coraline’s first day of school was much better. I woke myself at 5:30 feeling uncomfortable and showered and dressed before Coraline got up. She was fed and dressed and happy and waiting then while I did Jameson and we all made it to daycare by 7:45. I couldn’t believe it!

Monday afternoon my mom arrived to help with bedtimes and morning times. She came bearing donuts! Coraline stayed til noon at school and I picked her up exhausted. She didn’t nap or eat much at all. She passed out after I fed her for hours, for the first time ever. I had to wake her 3 hours later! I tried to enjoy my last days at home less the children, so we went to a movie on Tuesday and shopping and a mani/pedi on Wednesday.

Tuesday and Wednesday were much harder for Coraline. She did a little better on Tuesday than Wednesday; Tuesday I picked her up at 2 and Wednesday at 4:30. She did as she does at home and took 30 minute naps. She tried 4 bottles both days and drank about 3.5 ounces total each day (really like the equivalent of one bottle). They tell me she didn’t do much screaming at the bottle, so even though she isn’t taking much, it doesn’t seem to be a fight at least.

She didn’t have any wet diapers in the afternoon on Wednesday so with trepidation I put her to sleep that night thinking she would wake all night. Instead, on Thursday, my first day back at work, I tried to use her as an alarm clock and she didn’t wake until 7!

Needless to say, my first morning going back to work was hectic (and rainy). I do hope things get easier for her (and myself) soon; thankfully Brian returned Thursday night and I have a flexible work allowing me to leave early for the next week or so to make sure I can feed Coraline twice in the evenings since she is not doing well during the day.

We’ll just keep working at it! Until then, I expect sleepy and hungry evenings for Miss Coraline!

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