We did the "No Cry Sleep Solution" a few months ago, which helped somewhat. However, we needed something much quicker or NONE of us were ever going to get any sleep. I talked to the pediatrician for a LONG time and finally decided that she was ready for a version of the "Cry It Out" method called the "Ferber Method." It involves waiting when she wakes up and letting her cry for short, scheduled amounts of time to learn to soothe herself back to sleep before going in to comfort her. When we do go in, we are only to stay for 2-3 minutes and cannot get her out of the crib. If she didn't calm down, we set the timer for a little bit longer and wait.
I hesitate to even say it for fear of jinxing it, but I thinks she's been officially "ferberized!" She never cried for more than 10 minutes at a time, and now is able to soothe herself back to sleep all on her own - even without the passy! Brad has this awesome technique where he puts his arm on her back and rocks her back and forth in the crib. She goes to sleep within seconds. THAT was the only reason that she cried for so little time because he was always able to get her back to sleep. I did discover that she really IS hungry at least once a night. So we have decided that, until she's no longer needing it, we'll wake her up before she would naturally wake up hungry so that she's not associating crying with getting out of the crib. With that one feeding, she slept from 8:30PM last night until 9:00AM!!! Well, Brad put the passy back in around 7:00AM so that I could get a little extra sleep ;) I'm so proud of her. Now if I can just get in the habit of going to bed a little earlier I might feel rested for once.
We ventured out to the Dekalb County Farmer's market last weekend and tried out a new carrier/sling. I'll try to get the picture off of my phone later. It was AWESOME! She fell asleep and we did our shopping. I love that place.
Emma attended her first birthday party on Saturday. It was baby Kaitlyn's first birthday. We had a great time, but Emma was VERY sleepy and wasn't on her best behavior for the second half. Hard to believe we'll be planning her 1st birthday party in a few months. The time flies so fast. I remember when we went to see Kaitlyn in the hospital when she was born and I was pregnant with Emma - seems like yesterday.
Sleepy girl really liked Kaitlyn's rocking chair!
Ready for the party, hairbow and all!
Sleepy girl really liked Kaitlyn's rocking chair!
Pretty birthday girl!
A few tidbits about Emma:
She LOVES Gerber puffs - they melt in her mouth.
She is drinking water from a sippy cup now - one with a straw like a big girl!
Her favorite foods are sweet potato, carrots, pears, peaches, and prunes. Still hates green beans and doesn't really like peas much either.
She's sitting up SO well - she rarely topples over.
She loves sitting in her Baby Einstein exersaucer and working in what Brad calls her "office" while he plays the Wii - she watches his every move.
She finally likes tummy time, now that she's more mobile.
She's quite the little climber on the bed or the floor, though no crawling yet.
She's starting to try to wiggle and turn over while I change her diapers these days - she's also learning the meaning of the word "no!"
She immediately stops what she's doing if Lucy or one of the cats walks in the room - she LOVES them!
She's learning to pet "gently" with Lucy and my parents' dog, Bailey. Slowly but surely. Lucy's gotten very patient.
One of her favorite things to do when it's warm enough is to play on a cool waterproof picnic blanket in the backyard with some toys.
She's such a sweetheart. Her personality is really precious and we see her do something new every single day. She's the love of our lives....well, aside from one another :)
Here are a few more pictures...
Here are a few more pictures...
Playing at her Grandmother and Grandpop's (Brad's parents)
Gotta love those thigh rolls!! She DID have pants on, but had just had a diaper change and I left them off.
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