The Lord's Prayer

I'm quite sure our Miss Mouse has the strangest requests for bedtime songs of any child in the area. Last week she was praying and praying and praying, which is just fine and wonderful, but I couldn't take a whole lot more of praying for the 'lamp, Grammy's cats, the door, Grammy's cats, the bathroom, Grammy's cats, etc.'. So, I suggested we say the Lord's Prayer. She thought that was great and wanted to pray it over and over, too. Again, this is a good thing, but after the third time, we were stuck again. I decided we could sing it. Yes, indeed, I do a mean rendition of The Lord's Prayer. Mean. Anyway, it has become her new favorite bedtime song. She sang "heaven, heaven, heaven, heaven, which are heaven" all the way home from a wedding this weekend.

Baby Mouse has had several amazing days. After being told last week that we needed to work with her to straighten out her neck, we seem to be making some progress. It seems that she was so 'right oriented' that she was actually shortening the muscles on the one side of her neck because she refused to use them. I couldn't figure out what could have been perpetuating this problem. We would go in for a chiropractic adjustment; she would adjust well, and then she'd be out again in a couple of days. She's been an incredibly gaseous, fussy little gal, who had a look on her face almost constantly that said "I really don't want to cry; I'm so sorry; I just don't feel good!". It's been pretty tough. The only way she would sleep for the first six weeks of her life was on my chest....with her head facing right. I never even gave it a thought. She napped in her little Moby Wrap on my chest for 3-4 hours a day (2-3 hours at a shot, twice a day)....with her head facing right. Our chiropractor told me, as I had tears in my eyes from realizing that I was probably to blame for this situation, that most of the problem probably stems from a interuterine position. Good to know, but I'm sure it has probably been made worse from how I have allowed her to cuddle with me. Not that the cuddling has been bad, but I never thought to force her neck the other direction, and now it is nearly impossible. So, she has been spending most of her naps in her carseat now with her head in a neutral position. Thankfully one of my double strollers has a carseat attachment so that we can go for walks with the carseat. And there are always errands to run, of course!

Anyway, with the modifications we've been making in the past few days, she has started sleeping consistently from 10:30-4:30, eating at 4:30, eating on the other side at 6:30, and sleeping until 9:30. She doesn't have nearly as much gas, and she has been cooing and gazing into my eyes when she's awake instead of looking uncomfortable. It's been incredibly rewarding, especially since it has been incredibly hard to not let her cuddle up in her favorite position! We still cuddle an awful lot, and I hope that continues....just perhaps with her head facing left.

More news on Baby Mouse:
*She is starting to grasp things in her hands! She has started out much stronger in the left hand, similar to her sister. It will be interesting to see if she continues that way as Miss Mouse has.
*She really does gaze into my eyes much more than Miss Mouse. Miss Mouse was cuddly, but not as cuddly as Baby Mouse. Miss Mouse enjoyed seeing me, but not nearly in the way Baby Mouse seems to. Baby Mouse will gaze and get this beautiful, loving look on her face and just stare at me for several minutes at a time! Oh, to be loved!

News on Miss Mouse:
*She repeatedly counts to 16 these days. Usually it is for no reason at all, but she almost always gets the sequence correct. Sometimes there are a few numbers left out, and I know she doesn't have the concept down completely. But it's a start!
*Today she told me that she had a "sharp fingernail". Then she said she had two of them. Then she said she had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve of them. I told her that was interesting since she only has ten fingers. Such fun!