So SICK of these articles!!!!!

7 Months 1 Week

Have you seen the May issue of American Baby?  Am I the only one that is SO SICK of these sleep articles???? It seems every month each baby magazine puts their own spin on these "sleep" articles. 

NUMBER 1: ALL babies sleep differently...YES, it's great to have a sleep routine but if your babes is programmed to wake up in the middle of the night.....THEY WILL WAKE UP NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO!!!!!!!!!  At least, this has been my experience.

HAHAHAHA..........The 3-Step Solution You'll Thank Us For Tonight.  The only 3 step solution I'll be thanking you for tonight is...

Step 1: Put ice in a glass
Step 2: Pour whiskey and coke in glass
Step 3: Stir & Drink

The only thing I like about this article is this cuties PJ's....they are adorable!

I've been doing the bottle, bath, book and bed routine since LL was 3 months old!  She falls asleep fine...it's the staying asleep that has me going batty.

I have to say that we are in the middle of trying the last paragraph in this article (see below).  Its called the "Sleep Lady Shuffle".  It's where you sit by the crib and comfort baby before naptime, bedtime and during night wakings.  We already do this for naps and bedtime and she is falling asleep on her own.  But we plan to start it for the night wakings next week because that is when hubby and I will be in town for the next 3 weekends IN A ROW!!! It's supposed to work in 2 weeks.....we'll see!

7 Months...6 Month Low Down

Yesterday was LL's 7 Month Birthday --Here's Her 6 Month Low Down

Bedtime: between 7:00-7:30.  We moved her time back to her original bedtime.  We are so confused as parents.  We are forever going back and forth and experimenting with poor LL.  The bottom line...at this point in the day, she is tired and needs to go to bed at 7:00!

Wake-Up: Anytime between 6:00am and 7:30.  She is so all over the place.  There has never been consistency to anything LL does.

Naps: For the most part, LL is still taking 4 naps.  Depends on when she first gets up in the morning.  But I can see how she is trying to transition down to 3 naps.  Her first morning nap has become a long one...around 1 1/2 hours. Her last nap is around 3-3:30.  I won't let her take another one after that.

**On a side note:  We have been putting LL down in her crib while she is still awake for all naps and bedtime.  We stand over her crib and pat her stomach and hum and she goes to sleep on her own.
Sometimes it easier than other days, but she's getting the idea.  The goal is to just put her down and leave her to fall asleep solo.  I'm so jealous of moms who can do this with their babes.  We're hoping this will help with nighttime wakings and longer stretches of sleep.

Bottles: LL has been getting more bottles per day.  I would say around  4-5. I still pump a lot just to keep my milk supply up.  But for some reason, my left boob decided to become lazy and stop making any milk.  It all happened when LL was sick a couple weeks ago and stopped nursing/eating.  I should of pumped more then, but I didn't.  Now I know!

Nursing:  LL nurses about 2-3 times a day.  One time in the 3am area and the other first time in the am.  

Foods: LL JUST started eating 3 times a day.  I was only giving her solids in the am and pm, but she's been looking at the high chair in the middle of the afternoon and whining. 

New foods this month:  potatoes, cherries, apricots, pineapple, puffs.  I'm considering incorporating soy yogurt.  Anyone else try this?

Night Time: This month of sleeping has been horrible.  Back to square one with her.  I have officially given up on trying to figure her sleeping out.  She is back to waking up 45 min into her nighttime sleep and back up again around 11:30...sometime up at 1:30 or 3:00am or exactly 4:20 am and then up for the day between 6- 7:30.  There is absolutely ZERO consistency to LL's sleep.  Drives me bananas.

Developmental Milestones & Firsts:  Still scooting and army crawling all over the place!  We did buy her "cage" so that I would feel better about letting her crawl around without constantly looking at her.  She likes it for the most part.

LL is almost sitting up...she's been practicing using her kickstand also known as her tripod stance. She's almost gotten all the way to sitting position, then she does a face plant into the ground. ouch.

LL also got her first tooth!  Her lower right one came in about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  We are anxiously waiting for the 2nd one to pop up.  She's drooling and biting down on everything.

Favorite Toys:

Momma's Mental State:  Back to feeling tired and run day all day everyday.  It's getting very old.  Just when I feel like I get caught up on sleep, LL has a horrible night and here I am back to feeling like poo.  I keep telling myself that it won't last forever...but it very hard to be a good mom when you're tired all the time. 

Easter!

The Easter Bunny stopped by to fll up LL's very first Easter Basket. It was all very exciting to our little family!

Mrs. Easter Bunny gave LL bubbles, Apple Cinnamon Puffs, Bright Starts teething book, her very first Taggies Book, "Who Do You See?" and a "Who Loves Baby Book?" that holds pictures of LL's family!

LL dove right in!

Here's her teething book, which she loves.  It crinkles and has hard corners she can chew on.

This is her "Who Loves Baby?" book...there are places where you can add photos of different family members.

She also got her very first bottle of bubbles which we mainly use while in the stroller or in the bath tub!

Pheww...exhausted from all the work!  What a great 1st Easter...we love the Easter Bunny!

High Chair!

6 Months 4 Weeks

 

We finally bought a highchair for LL this past weekend.  The bouncy seat just wasn't cutting it anymore.  Besides, she needs to learn to eat sitting up.  And I want her to start practicing picking up her food.  We also introduced Puffs.

Speaking of Puffs, I have only heard of this finger food through other blogs.  I went to babies r us and found the ones below.  Are these the right ones?  They seem really too big  for her mouth.  I keep thinking she is going to choke on them.   I tried them and they do dissolve rather quickly, but I'm still a Nervous Nelly!

She loves her sippy cup!  At dinner, we've started putting her milk in her cup so we can all sit as a family at the table!

It's so fun to see her practice with the Puffs.  It's hard work getting those things in the mouth!

We settled on this Eddie Baur high chair.  I wasn't too concerned with the padding OR the reclining action of the other chairs.  Besides, this is the kind we all grew up in...except I think mine was a metal frame.

We Found a New Park!

6 Months 3 Weeks

We found a new park today and it's super close to our house!  Lots of walking and bike trails.  I also love how there was close to zero people there.  Crowds kind of bother me.

This looks like a great playground for LL when she gets a bit older.

A lot of trees and shaded areas.  Very relaxing and peaceful.

We stayed for about 2 hours just walking around and checking the place out.  LL conked out for a good 45 minutes!

TEETH!!!

6 Months 3 Weeks

It has been moody central in our little house lately! LL has been one big crabapple. Fussy and not sleeping at all. Since she loves being outside, I decided to take her morning bottle outside.....it was so nice and breezy by the lake. After her bottle, she was chewing on my finger and WAM....there it was. The sharp feeling of a tooth! I couldn't believe it...I was so excited for her. This also explains why she has been soooooo grumpy lately. Poor thing. I would take pictures of the tooth, but it's only the tip top. So, I'll update with pictures when they are further along.

Instead, I decided to take pictures of her on this momentous occasion!

"Yay, Momma....my FIRST tooth"

In The Pool....Finally!

6 Months 3 Weeks

The water is warm enough so LL can go officially go swimming in our pool.  No more just dipping the toes.    YAY!  Here she is looking at daddy as if she's saying "are we really going in?"

"Are we really going in, Daddy?"

She didn't flinch once she got in... She was loving it!

She is definitly going to love boat time with daddy.  Bryan can't wait to get her behind the boat.

"Daddy is a great swimming partner!"

"Momma, this water thing is pretty great!"

This is also the perfect time for momma and daddy to enjoy a beverage or two!

These are our friends Tegan and her daddy Ty.  When LL saw Ty, she started crying.  She's seen him a million times before.  Not sure what that was about.

We're OK now!

She kicked and kicked and kicked!!  I think she's a natural.  I think this is where we'll be all summer long!

Our First Case Of The Sickies

6 Months 2 Weeks

LL has been sick since Monday.  My guess is that it's a good ole fashion cold.  She woke up extra early Monday morning and was snorting and so grumpy.  It was the first time I got to use the Nose Frieda.  It initially worked the first few days, but now that the snot seems to be multiplying...it's harder to get out. 

Bryan had to leave town Monday morning for work so LL and I packed up and went to MeMe and PawPaw's house to stay for a few days.  I got ZERO sleep because LL was up every 2 hours.  It's so not her fault and she's so pathetic when she's sick.  We pulled out her Rock N Play again so she could sleep in an incline.  Seems to working.

We've also pulled out her Frog Humidifier that was gifted to us from Bryan's Uncle D and Aunt M.  It's like walking into a Rainforest when I walk into her room. 
 

On top of all of that....I got the sickies too.  Yuck.  Very sore throat and all over body ache.  Bryan got home last night, so I took my NyQuil and went to sleep early.  If you have any suggestions for relieving congestion for babies, please do tell.

My First Baby Consignment Sale

My friends invited me to my very first baby consignment sale.  It was interesting to see all the different kinds of items people bring in to sell.  I did look through the clothes, but didn't really find anything good.  I was really looking for pool items and and big cage for LL.  Didn't find any of those, but did find some other fun toys.   

Johnny Jump Up for $5.00.  We put this in the kitchen doorway so she can hangout with daddy while he's cooking dinner.

 The LeapFrog Learn and Groove Table...$8.00  The legs come off so I can put it on the floor for LL to play with.  As she gets bigger, I'll attach the legs.  My friends assured me that LL would get a lot of use out of this one!

Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders, $8.00.  It lights up and plays sounds of the bubbles and moving water when you drop the fish in.  It looks brand new and even came with the instruction manual.  I was kind of in shock when I found out this toy sells for $39.99.  What?? Really??  Toys are completely over priced!

 I couldn't resist buying her these clear jelly shoes from The Gap.

I was kind of lame at this sale. I didn't buy many toys, but the next one I'll know what to look for.  Plus, we live in this tiny 2-bedroom condo with NO storage so I'm reluctant to buy lots-o-toys!