Maya Giveth...

And Maya taketh away.

Earlier this week, Maya suddenly started sleeping through the night.  That's right, at 4 weeks of age she started sleeping for 6.5 to 7 hours straight.  It was miraculous.  Phenomenal.  And it was all done with out reading a single "how to make your child sleep better" book.  Needless to say, we were feeling pretty good.  Maya's grown up sleep patterns clearly reflected that we were awesome parents, and she was a child genius (note to reader: previous sentence should be read with more than a hint of sarcasm).

But, just as quickly as she started being a stellar sleeper, she stopped.  After five tantalizing peaceful nights of sleep, MJ reverted back to only sleeping 2-3 hours at a time.  What changed?  The only person who knows is the two foot tall human who resides in our house and sadly she isn't talking. (Literally.  She's not such a child genius that she can talk at a month old.  Jeez people).  Since we have no idea what changed, we sadly have no idea how to coax her back to her long nights.  We do know now, however, what a big a difference it makes to get a full night of sleep.  We anxiously await the day when Maya decides to be nice to her parents and start sleeping through the night again.

Our little trucker

Maya is not ladylike.  I guess this should come as no surprise given that the Bettles/Romano women are not known for being particularly demure.  Instead of cooing, she grunts.  A lot.  This video really doesn't do justice to just how loud her grunting and other noises are, but it is the best we could capture on film.  We have more than one person say to us "I've never heard a child grunt quite that loud..."  At the rate Maya is going, we are pretty sure Maya's first word will be something that is not fit to write on this blog...

One month down...

215 to go...

That's right.  Maya officially turned a month old on Saturday, March 2nd.  That means we only have 215 more months to go until Maya is legally no longer our responsibility (disclaimer: we are not actually counting down the days until we can shirk responsibility for our little tyke; we just thought it was an interesting stat).

Someone recently told me that with kids the days are long, but the years (or months in this case) are short.  That is definitely how we feel about this first milestone...

Meeting Grefo

Maya recently had the great honor of meeting her great-grandfather.  Ryan has always called his grandpa "Fefo."  For Maya's generation, we have changed the moniker to Grefo (Great + Fefo=Grefo). Here are some pics of their introduction:

Tummy time

At Maya's 2 week check up, our doctor told us that Maya should have 20 minutes of "tummy time" per day.  For the uninitiated, "tummy time" is essentially when you flip your kid onto his or her stomach and watch them writhe about.  Since kids aren't allowed to sleep on their stomachs anymore, tummy time builds kids' neck strength and ensures that they don't get a flat dome piece (both good things in our opinion...).

The night after we visited the doctor, we realized that, being the bad new parents we are, we had forgotten to do tummy time.  We figured, why interrupt a good meal when you can continue with the wine and dessert course and tackle tummy time simultaneously?

Although we enjoyed our table top entertainment, Maya was not similarly enthralled with tummy time:

Matchy matchy

Usually it is the mother who wants to dress the kid all "matchy matchy" (e.g., dressing twins alike or buying "mommy and me" outfits).  In this house, we decided to flip the stereotype.  Ryan's one purchase prior to Maya's arrival?  A baby version of a sweatshirt he owned.  For her one month birthday, Ryan insisted that Maya and him dress as twinsies.  Maya's face suggests that even at a month old she is less than entertained by her dad's antics...

Everybody put your hands up

Since the day she was born, Maya's hands have been her favorite appendage.  She loves having them by her face when she sleeps, putting them under her chin when she is being burped, and chewing on them when Mom is trying to feed her (a habit that is only mildly annoying at 3 a.m.).  We have taken many pictures of Maya with her hands in wacky positions, but this one is our all time favorite.  We caught her yesterday sleeping with her arms and hands literally suspended in air in the "victory" formation.  How could this possibly be comfortable?