I’m sick, so our relatively uneventful Thanksgiving will now be totally uneventful. But there is likely to still be snow, and perhaps we can get Daphne to play in it again.

For my birthday, I received a gift card to REI, which I promptly spent on warm clothing and a fleece bunting for Daphne which may be the most adorable piece of winter wear I’ve ever seen. It certainly has kept her warm enough on walks with our mid-20F days, as long as she’s sufficiently dressed underneath it.

We are on day… (think: Wednesday night, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun, do the math)… day five of Daphne’s cold.  She’s less “clear snot running down the nose” and more “hack, snorg, gack”.  This has become our new work: snorgy.  And if you’ve ever had a head cold, you know exactly what I mean.  It’s frustrating, because she breaths better if she’s upright (duh!), and would sleep with me holding her in the glider the first two days of her cold, but now pitches a fit if I sit down with her in the glider when it’s bed/naptime.  My butt doesn’t even have to touch the seatpan and she’s off.  And, of course, with a baby cold, she starts crying, then she gets snorgier, then she starts coughing, then she starts doing that gasping coughing thing because she’s so worked up.  (This occurs both quickly, and is something she normally doesn’t do.  So I have little built in tolerance for it.)

I’m so thankful it took six months for her to get her first real cold; she at least as figured out mouth breathing.  And I’m thankful she’s still nursing pretty much exclusively (outside of an apple slice here and a sweet potato fry there) so that she’s getting antibodies from me.  But I’m not so thankful that now Jason and I are sick as well.  Or that, apparently, baby colds can last two weeks.  Two weeks?!  TWO weeks?!!!  I’m getting pretty crappy sleep here and it’s going to go on for two weeks?!?!  And the two weeks when I have three days of teacher training, four days off, and four days of teacher training back to back?  Bleh.

Fortunately, in the time between her waking up and trying to start putting her down to sleep, she’s generally pretty darn happy.  She’s loving going for walks (in the stroller, due to the rain and not yet figuring out our full rain system in the backpack); I imagine the cold air is helping her breath better.  She’s loving her baths (started splashing with her hands yesterday).  She’s nursing like crazy (more medicine, please).  And her diaper rash is improving.  Now if only we can teach her to not compulsively rub her eyes when she’s tired and unswaddled!

With yoga teacher training, growth spurts, and various classes, it’s been two months since I last posted a baby-blog update, and I wish I hadn’t waited so long.  Daphne turned 6months old last Wednesday and had her six month shots and doctor’s appointment on Friday (15lb 12oz, 26.25″) and did well with those.  The sleeping issues had been going fairly well for a while, then she hit a growth spurt that started with wonky sleep, then required lots of food, and has continued with the inability to stay asleep for a full nap or go to sleep at an even semi reasonable time at night.

On the other hand, she is starting to sit up by herself, and due to the need for lots of diaper free time for a persistent (but relatively mild) diaper rash, she’s getting the idea of using the potty.  In the past few days, she’s even started trying to vocalize with other sounds.

Looking back on everything, I can now say that, if I had to do it all over again, I probably would not do the yoga teacher training I’m taking at this time.  Being away from Daphne and Jason for the vast majority of every other weekend, having to try to make it to various classes at a studio that’s 30-60 minutes away (depending on traffic), and trying to get all the homework done between sessions is just draining.  I do think there is something that it has added to my time as a new parent – time away, a perspective on patience and self-awareness, and a chance to practice something I love – but I am looking forward to it being finished and not feeling quite so cramped for time.

And, hopefully, I can get back to blogging more often so that I’m not missing two month stretches at a time.  While I feel that I have gotten a good opportunity and space for being present for the growth that Daphne has shown during that time, it would be nice to have the time to record some of the highlights and reflect on it.