So I know all those thankful posts are sooo Thanksgiving, but something about Christmas time makes me feel so incredibly grateful for everything I have. Had a great weekend with my husband's family and with all sorts of travel and holiday celebrations ahead, I'm feeling so very thankful that I have so much: a fabulous husband, an adorable baby, a loving family (even fantastic in-laws, who knew such a thing existed??), a great pair of pups, I could go on and on...
Find myself wanting to pinch...myself, I guess (feeling very Austin Power-ish there, sure there's a better way to say that) all the time--is this really my life? Seriously, it really is a wonderful life...
Monday, December 20, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Ladies & Gentlemen, We Have a Crawler!
After what seems like years (and actually was probably about a month), Allie has finally figured out how to crawl forward! She did it last night for the first time for us and I confirmed with our daycare provider that she just started doing it there yesterday as well (I think out of respect for the parents wanting to witness all of a child's "firsts", she sometimes doesn't bring up new things they are doing, lest the parents feel bad about missing it). Our daycare provider actually said that Allie was breaking out of the baby area to go hang out with the bigger kids, which makes me laugh. I don't think she's quite ready for that level of play, but she must think she is!
Much improvement on the eating front as well--we moved to more table food types of eats and Allie really seems to like that better. So phew--I might not have to breastfeed this kid her whole life.
In other, REALLY exciting news, Allie is finally sleeping through the night! We started trying to let her cry a bit when she woke in the night as we were pretty sure she was getting up to eat out of habit more than hunger. First night she woke a couple of times, didn't cry for more than 10 minutes (in fact, the second time I was actually going to go feed her and stopped to go the bathroom first--she was asleep by the time I was done!). Second night, more of the same. Third night was a bit rougher--she woke and cried for 25 minutes before putting herself to sleep, which was SO hard for me. My husband slept through it, that f-er. Seriously, who sleeps through almost a half hour of their child crying just down the hall?? The man I married, that's who. Anyway, it was pretty much the longest 25 minutes of my life. But since then, she's slept through the night without a peep!
An unexpected bonus to that is that not only is she sleeping better during the night, she's going down easier too. Before this, I was never sure what I would get when I nursed her and put her into her crib at night. I would always try to put her down slightly awake so she could learn to put herself to sleep, and most nights she would do so with no problem, but every once in a while she would get upset and cry a bunch. Which was so hard. But since we started doing the night waking sleep training, she's been going to bed like a dream.
Now I just need to figure out to get ME to sleep through the night--after 8+ months of not getting to sleep through the night (even more when you add in the uncomfortable last months of pregnancy--God knows I wasn't sleeping through the night then), I am still waking up half a dozen times a night, just to peek at Allie on our video monitor. It's getting better though--some day soon, every member of our family will get a full night's sleep!
Much improvement on the eating front as well--we moved to more table food types of eats and Allie really seems to like that better. So phew--I might not have to breastfeed this kid her whole life.
In other, REALLY exciting news, Allie is finally sleeping through the night! We started trying to let her cry a bit when she woke in the night as we were pretty sure she was getting up to eat out of habit more than hunger. First night she woke a couple of times, didn't cry for more than 10 minutes (in fact, the second time I was actually going to go feed her and stopped to go the bathroom first--she was asleep by the time I was done!). Second night, more of the same. Third night was a bit rougher--she woke and cried for 25 minutes before putting herself to sleep, which was SO hard for me. My husband slept through it, that f-er. Seriously, who sleeps through almost a half hour of their child crying just down the hall?? The man I married, that's who. Anyway, it was pretty much the longest 25 minutes of my life. But since then, she's slept through the night without a peep!
An unexpected bonus to that is that not only is she sleeping better during the night, she's going down easier too. Before this, I was never sure what I would get when I nursed her and put her into her crib at night. I would always try to put her down slightly awake so she could learn to put herself to sleep, and most nights she would do so with no problem, but every once in a while she would get upset and cry a bunch. Which was so hard. But since we started doing the night waking sleep training, she's been going to bed like a dream.
Now I just need to figure out to get ME to sleep through the night--after 8+ months of not getting to sleep through the night (even more when you add in the uncomfortable last months of pregnancy--God knows I wasn't sleeping through the night then), I am still waking up half a dozen times a night, just to peek at Allie on our video monitor. It's getting better though--some day soon, every member of our family will get a full night's sleep!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
A Very Eventful Long Weekend
We had an incredible Thanksgiving--we hosted and had both my mother-in-law (who is fabulous, seriously) and my parents over for dinner. Food was great, as was the company. Allie even enjoyed some pumpkin to mark the occasion--no, not the pie, but just some canned 100% pumpkin (have you ever tried that stuff? it tastes just like a tin can--yum). Solids have been a struggle for her--we were really trying with her for a few weeks after she turned 7 months, both at home and daycare, but she got sick and we've taken some time off. Plus she hates it, so it's frustrating to do. But she really seemed to enjoy the pumpkin, so I'm thinking maybe she likes the thicker stuff, not the wimpy baby stage 1 foods we've been giving her. So I think we're going to try to beef up her remaining stage 1 stuff w/ cereal and start working on some stage 2 foods as well as some grown up foods like banana and avocado. I know, I've got big dreams but we've got to get this kid off the boob at some point. I am not going to be breastfeeding her at 8 like that YouTube video, thank you very much.
Besides the good eating, Allie also felt that Thanksgiving and all the attention was a good time to break out a couple of new moves. Both were awesome, but my fave was, if you asked her for a kiss, she would open her mouth a little bit and lean towards you to give you a kiss! It was so heart melting--she did it to me several times and once with my MIL.
The second thing was the debut of a new face--she kind of pulls her hands up under her chin, back of hands together and smooshes up her face into a pouty look. We call it the Grumpy Rapper, as it looks like she's doing one of those high up arm crosses popular amongst old school rappers. You know, like the guy on the left here:
It's pretty much the cutest thing ever and we were all crying with laughter over it. And on Saturday she went from her tummy to a seated position, which she hasn't done before.
She got another cold though (which makes 4 I think for the fall--it sucks) and hasn't done the kissing thing since and only randomly will pull the face. She's on the mend again now so hopefully we'll see the return of both soon!
Besides the good eating, Allie also felt that Thanksgiving and all the attention was a good time to break out a couple of new moves. Both were awesome, but my fave was, if you asked her for a kiss, she would open her mouth a little bit and lean towards you to give you a kiss! It was so heart melting--she did it to me several times and once with my MIL.
The second thing was the debut of a new face--she kind of pulls her hands up under her chin, back of hands together and smooshes up her face into a pouty look. We call it the Grumpy Rapper, as it looks like she's doing one of those high up arm crosses popular amongst old school rappers. You know, like the guy on the left here:
She got another cold though (which makes 4 I think for the fall--it sucks) and hasn't done the kissing thing since and only randomly will pull the face. She's on the mend again now so hopefully we'll see the return of both soon!
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