Baby Gymboree!!!

katie's new favorite way to sit is on her knees.

The Gym! it is so much fun!

We had such a great time today at gymboree. I try to make my sunday class every week but somehow end up missing it usually but today i made it. It was really nice weather outside so not too many people showed up which was kinda nice for katie to get some individual attention and not be so overwhelmed. the first time we went to class there were 12 babies in the class which is the max. Today there were only 4 which was really nice. Bri was gonna go with us but has had a long week at work and used his sunday to get rested and ready for another week of work. I understand so katie and i were off to gymboree. This is only her third time. the first time she just sat there and looked around. the instructor asked me... is she a crawler.. i was like YES she can crawl!!! but she was just looking around and didn't really do anything mobile which is what the whole class is really about so i was nervous about the next few. The second class katie stole the show. she was clapping, a fairly new trick and blabbing a little and crawling all over the place, ther were about 8 babies at our class. and today with only 4 babies katie picked up right where she left off this week with her new trick of waving. she would stop what she was doing and sit down so she could pick up her hands and wave to another baby. it was adorable. i snapped these few photos during class.
tiny class today was nice. all the babies have their name tags on their back. hehe or else they would pull them off.
the first time but def. not the last she crawled through the tube. i almost bought one of these before i left the gym she had so much fun crawling through it.


Well off to bed. its 4am now am and i haven't heard katie for about 30 minutes. which is good cus since 130 she has been up every 20 minutes. i dunno wahts bothering her. she isn't' screaming but she keeps siting up and can't figure out how to put herself back to sleep... like how to lay down again so i have to go in there and lay her down before she wakes up too much that she is then awake.
ahhhhhhhh the nights of sleeping through the night are over. HA what am i talking about... that was like 3 nights. well now teeth are coming so its all a guessing game at this point. we have given her Tylenol the past 2 nights this past weekend before bed cus she takes it just fine when she is awake but if she wakes up with teeth hurting it is a huge fight to give her medicine in the middle of the night.
oh... speaking of huge fight, katie has really started to protest us changing her diaper. i mean we lay her on her back and she will start rolling over, regardless of if she has a diaper on or not! it makes for quite an interesting day with 5 or 6 changes a day ya never know whats gonna happen!

just the cutest!

Last night katie and i had a laughing fest. it was one of my best moments with her so far! of course we will have many more fun moments but this was one for the books. katie was supposed to be calming down and getting ready for bed but she was in a spunky mood after wrestling with bri (which is also something new she and bri do that makes his heart melt cus she giggles sometimes while bri is roughhousing with her.) katie was sitting on my lap and she leaned forward towards my face with an open mouth and bit my noes. i said "oww" in a cute little voice. it didn't really hurt so i was just joking around and katie lost it! i mean she was laughing so hard it cracked me up. so we weer both laughing. of course she continued and did it again and again and again and she started laughing so hard she was crying. no joke she had tears in her eyes and so did i. it was such a cute moment and i can't wait for us to laugh together again. i can't even describe how hard we were laughing. oh sheesh it was just so precious.
Katie has been leaning into our faces with an open mouth i think she is trying to kiss us cus i kiss her so much but she doesn't' know how to close her mouth so she kisses us with a huge open mouth with slobber. I'll take it. she is hugging more and these slobber kisses are just too cute.

Katie is experimenting with food more and more. she is eating tons of different things. just tonight she ate half a piece of pizza! I was like umm... an I going to need to start making you your own grilled cheese sandwich and your own leftover piece of pizza?? I was wondering when she would start eating enough that she can't jsuteat off of my plate. Well the way she is eating I'm thinking its pretty soon!

Well I started this blog entry a week ago and its 245am 5 days later and i have been up with katie 4 times tonight for no reason but now i'm up for good and am finally going to finish this blog entry. lets see last week when i started this.... I left katie alone with bri's folks for over 2 hours. Thats a first for me. Everyone that knows me knows i'm crazy about leaving katie and i just never do it so this was big step. When she woke up from her nap i fed her lunch and scooted on over there and dropped her off and i went shopping. I had to return something but i ended up going bathing suit shopping. Listen up ladies that had a baby this year (and there about 10 of you I know...), do not go bathing suit shopping in feb when you are pasty white and just had a baby. I do not know what i was thinking except that i wanted to get a suit before they ran out everywhere cus i wanted something particular this year. I wanted a ONE piece or at least a tankini cus there was no way i was fitting into my string bikinis ever again! I don't get it really, my weight is under what it was before i got pregnant but my body is screwy. I mean i'm not an idiot, I of course get it but honestly will it ever be the same again???!!! I'm thinking NO! O well all worth it for sure, just gotta walk a little more. Speaking of walking I have been out 4 times this week because it was 70 degrees a few days and I just couldn't miss out of it being so nice. I have a great walking buddy who introduced me to a loop around a local park that we do with our baby girls. Izzy is about 6 weeks older than KAtie and has a big dog so us two mommies walk around with the girls and Finn, the pooch. Its so cute. I can't wait for it to be nice all the time so we can do it more often. After 2 70degree days it returned to freezing!!!!! ugh

this was one of the last photos of my old stroller. which i ended up keeping but I cant' wait to show off my new jogger! it is super cute and has a pedometer. now.. if i could only figure out how to work it I would be in business!

We had tons of play dates this week. We had a walk play date with Izzy on monday, Tuesday we walked with Callie and then Wed we saw the twins, thursday we met up with Stella and Friday we met up with Samuel. All Katie's baby friends. WE had a very full week of playtime with friends. I try to get katie to have at least 3 playdates a week cus i feel like its good for her and i hope it will tire her out a little. humm it half worked. she had a great time with teh babies but she wasn't any more tired than usual. still battling the sleep issue so...


Katie got her third tooth this week! bottom one. I'm just waiting for some top teeth to come in although i'm worried about biting with top and bottom teeth. she has eased up on the biting but i cant'imagine getting bit with both sets of teeth. ouch! i haven't' snagged a photo of the third tooth cus she doenst' like when i look at them but i felt it the other day. its so shar like little puppy teeth! I can't believe she is eating all this food with just 3 teeth. whats it going to be like when she gets the top ones too!
One last thing katie has been doing this week which is new is waving. she is waving at everything, everyone, and it is so cute!!! I have been working on waving with her for a month now and all of a sudden when we had someone come and stay with us last week she started doing it. The best part of the day for me and for bri especially is when bri comes home we wait at the front door behind the glass and as he approaches the door from work katie starts waving like crazy and kicking her legs. she just gets too excited!!!She waves at everything too, the door, the window, people at the grocery store, me when i leave and come into the room. it really is a sweet little gesture. she waves at the camera too. i grabbed this photo of her waving at the camera

with beryl, our house guest last weekend. they loved each other!

other fun new stuff

the other day i left katie in her room for a minute while i grabbed something and since she isn't too fast, getting faster but i can still leave her for minute if she is in her room, anyway i started hearing this thump, thump, thump. i went in there and she was crawling with a toy in her hand banging it on the floor thump thump thump. it was so cute. i have never seen her try and go somewhere and bring a toy along with her. hehe adorable!
she is pushing buttons, opening and closing toys,and has really learned everything on her toy table. but everything that has a button that makes a noise she pushes it and looks at me like ooooooo look at me mommy i can do something. when she can't open something, or doesn't understand something or can't figure out how to makes something turn on or get from one place to another she has started handing me the object. she loves handing me a book if she wants me to read, or a squeaky toy (some of them are hard to squeak) if she can't squeak it and she looks at me to show her where to press to make a noise. she loves handing me food. when she is in her high chair she hands me pieces of things, even feeds me them, right into my mouth. its so funny. if i fake and act like i eat it and then put it back on the table she knows. she isn't a dummy ;) i end up eating a bunch of cheerios i didn't need to eat. ;)
speaking of food. katie has started biting things. she only has the two bottom teeth but i can give her a mum mum teething rice cake and she will suck and i have recently heard her bite with her too tiny teeth and she breaks off pieces on her own. i have to really watch her though or sometimes she bites off a piece way too big. she is loving finger foods and i must say i have gotten pretty brave and creative when it comes to giving her big girl food. she still eats a tub of puree but she definitely prefers finger food!!!! one night this week she didn't eat any puree. only finger food and that made me worry that she didn't get enough food although that night she slept through the night so, i'm not complaining
honeydew, watermelon, squash balls,

Katie has started to wave. it was so cute. we had a visitor this weekend and as soon as we picked her up from the train katie waved at her. i was like WHAT! she has never done that before. she spent all weekend waving at everything and everyone. this weekend she has been super excited. all weekend she has been kicking her legs with that goofy face of excitement and shrieking. oh...and talking. this weekend she has been babbling and talking up a storm which is really fun.

we put a cover on katie's crib rail cus she is standing up and chewing the rail. its cloth and i think its working. katie doesn't chew as much so... i suppose its doing its job. i put katie in the crib the other day and she stood up and started whining. she looked so cute rather than pick her up i took a photo of her crying. that sounds mean. its not like i let her cry for a long time but she was just fussing so i thought i would take a second to take a shot of her crying. i don't have one so.... ;)
told ya it was cute ;)

new car seat!

we got our new car seat. well actually we got it like 2 weeks ago but it has just been sitting downstairs in the basement waiting for a nice day to install so last weekend it was nice and bri put it in the car. took us a minute to figure it out like most baby stuff that requires assembly but it seems to be working just fine. i was worried that katie wouldn't like it cus there is no bar to hang over and hang toys that she can pull while in the car but i am just putting toys in her lap and she is fine. i always put a book in her lap too and that distracts her for at least 15 minutes. she will sit there and turn the pages and if its a touch and feel book which it usually is cus they are her favorite she will sit there and touch each page and look at it and i have noticed recently she is getting favorites. not just the animal sounds but she also likes a book about spot the dog and another book about bunnies. she looks at the pages long enough sometimes that i think she is really following the main character through the pages but who knows. she really has to be in the right mood or else she just likes turning the pages, feeling, and turning to feel the next page.
with her touch and feel bunny book! big girl in the big girl car seat! i think when it turns around to face forward it will be even better!!!

anyway she hasn't fallen asleep in her new car seat yet. i try my hardest to go places right after nap time so she doesn't sleep in the car. i don't want that to become a habit and then she can only sleep when i put her in the car. i know that's a habit that usually develops when babies are young but i don't want to take the chance. and i don't usually have to go anywhere when its nap time anyway so it has worked out just fine.

fun stuff and daddy!

well we had a great weekend starting with daddy being off on friday that means more time to play as a family!!! katie has been doing a lot of fun things lately. she is standing up on pretty much anything i mean pulling up to a standing position. sometimes she even comes up to me and pulls up on my pants to stand. she isn't' standing without holding onto something just yet but i'm assuming that's not far behind. her new thing these days is to walk along the table.
she is just starting that so she can't do it fast or without a lot of thought but she is starting to hold on to the coffee table and walk along the side while holding on. i caught her doing this on the crib too when watching her on the monitor. sometimes i place a paci on the crib rail corner so in the middle of the night when she doesn't have a paci and i need one its right there but the other day since she has learned to stand she stood up and saw it there so she proceeded to walk around the crib... very very very slowly and grab the paci. it was super cute!
Katie and daddy are so cute these days. He says the funnies things to and about her. The other day I was combing out katie's cradle cap which for some reason has returned and i said oops katie i got some of your hair... and bri must have heard me from the other room and he came in the bathroom and said with a straight face "oh nooooooo katie needs that hair. she has so little!" it was so cute he was really worried about the few pieces of hair i had pulled out while combing. hehe its ok bri it will grow back. although he is right she really has so little hair and it hasn't started filling in just yet.
The two of them have this funny little thing they do. Katie never lets daddy change her diaper without a crazy rolling over game. I always ask bri to change katie's diaper and i hear him saying "katie this is not a game. let me put your diaper on." and he talks to her like a little person as if she understands. hahaha its so funny. i come in after hearing him ask her nicely 2 or 3 times to stop rolling around and she was sitting up on the table and bri looks defeated and she is diaperless. its so funny. this happens a few times a week. she just won't let him put the diaper on or OH the pants.. the pants are the worst. bri brings katie out of the room after a diaper change without pants all the time. i'm like ummmm r we missing something and he just looks at me like... look ur lucky she has a diaper on. she WON'T let me put her pants on. hehehe its so cute.
bri and i were so tired the other night cus katie had us up and we were in bed talking and katie was screaming. we were debating if i should just get up and feed her, (its really nice when bri gets up and supports me with katie no matter if he does anything, having him up makes the night easier... for me lol.. makes for TWO tired parents in the morning though) i said oh sheesh i'll just go feed her and he reminded me that the doctor said not to touch her or pick her up or feed her. and he started busting out laughing. i was like ummmm what? he said "its like at the zoo when they have those signs on the cages about no feeding the animals... its like that. don't' pick them up... don't feed them" he was hysterical. we were so tired.. u know when you are so tired everything is funny. he kept going on and on..."we should make a sign and put it on katie's door." haha he was cracking up.
needless to say it made being up at 2am easier on the two of us.

Katie LOVES reading books. Its something bri and katie have started to do every night after bath time. i get about 45 minutes or so to myself for a shower, or blogging, emailing, or just time to catch up on me... laundry... lol when bri reads to katie. i read to her at least 3 or 4 books a day and she loves books. i give her a book in the car even and she sits there and turns the pages. its so cute. her favorite book is this animal sounds book. she actually likes when i make the sounds better than bri. hehehe i get really into it. lol but katie loves her book time with bri. sometimes i peak into the room and he has her on his lap and after each page he reads katie makes a little noise as if saying "ok daddy move on to the next page please. i understand..." its so cute
speaking of animal sounds. Katie cracks up when we read the book but even more we make the sounds all throughout the day. we have one other book that has tons of animals and i make the sounds when i turn the page and see a new animal and she loves it. I even make the sounds when she is eating in her high chair if she starts to get restless. it makes her distracted and always gets me a smile! animal sounds... who knew! ;)This is her favorite book!


this is the first time i opened the cabinet and let her see all her books. her eyes almost fell out of her head she was like ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sleep update! katie slept through the night on valentines day and the night after. then wed night she was up at 1230 and didn't go back down till 245. ugh we were both up and are sooooo tired today!!!!!

night number Who Cares!

alright its been 7 nights, well tonight is night number 7 and katie just finished crying for 45 minutes. ughhhhhhh lets see night number 1,2,and 3 were awful but night number 4 she slept through the night. we started on a friday and bri was home so it was easy to follow the routine the doctor gave us and the 3 nights we started (friday, sat, and sunday) we followed it perfectly. dinner, playtime with daddy, nurse, bath, then rock for a few minutes and then cry it out. come in every 5 then 10 then 15 minutes and by night number 4 katie figured it out. my pediatrician says that's pretty text book. it takes 3 nights and it did! but come monday, tusday, wed, bri was workign late, katie had started teething, and we just didn't follow the schedule as well...we mixed up nursing, she was teething so she didn't' wanna eat, we skipped a bath one night, bri wasnt' home so he didn't get the hour of playtime with her so basically we screwed up.
so the past 3 nights i feel like we are moving backwards. like we are starting all over again. well tomorrow is friday night so i guess we will be able to start back up again the right way. was this whole week a waste??? ughhhhhhhh the one good thing that came out of this was that i know she can sleep through the night without food. that's a good thing to know and it makes me feel good about the amount of food she is getting.
one other good thing that has come from this week is when she does wake up in the middle of the night she doesn't need to be rocked for a long period of time. she can be laid down and given her paci, or worst case, i pick her up and she is asleep in a few minutes which is a hell of a lot better than rocking her for 30+ minutes. except for night number 5... holy moly katie was up from 1-2 screaming. ughhhhhh whatever besides the point. all in all she is doing well when she does wake up and for that i'm thankful.
another good thing that came from this week is her naps have been GREAT! she is taking an early nap around 930ish and then another one in the early afternoon before 2. no more 11 and 330. she is doing great during the day. i can't believe her schedule is coming together so well during the day and her naps have been consistent as well as lengthy. no more 3 and 4 naps for 30-45 minutes. she is taking 2 good naps! oh i'm so happy about that! well lets hope after tonight's 45 minutes of crying tonight she will sleep through the night. she needs to be well rested because daddy decided to take the day off tomorrow to play with us! yeahhhhhhh 3 day weekend with bri. we are soo excited!
well.... tomorrow i'm gonna write about fun stuff. no more talking about sleeping. i'm over it. it will happen when it happens. all i can do at this point is say a prayer and hope i have the strength to keep this up and teach katie about bed time. wish me luck. god knows i need it!

teething???

well last night was awful but this morning was about normal. katie was up at 545 and after nursing (but not that much) she was up for the day! she ate breakfast but not too much and then went down for a nap at 9 but only for 45 minutes so that wasn't great but i took it! we had an early lunch cus she slept so little this morning by 1130 she was hungry so we had a little lunch, today she decided she was not going to eat puree's she just wanted finger food. i had to fight both breakfast and lunch to get her to eat any puree. she napped from 1-4 this afternoon but like i said yesterday i was goign to try and eliminate the nursing before the am nap so today, i offered it to her before both naps and she didn't' take it either time. now i'm starting to worry a little cus she ate a poor breakfast, didn't nurse before nap, then ate a small lunch and didn't nurse before afternoon nap. humm... well at 430 she woke up and did nurse which was great cus she really hadn't taken in many calories today at all. dinner came along and she ate half a jar of food and fought me to the end for just that so i started searching for finger foods to give her cus she sure wasn't eating anything else. she ended up with grapes, cheerios (even though she had those for breakfast), cheese (her new favorite thing), a piece or two of some crackers, squash mashed (that we had for dinner and she wouldn't' eat it off a spoon so she tried picking up mashed squash and stuffing it in her mouth), and some banana covered in cheerios. sheesh i was exhausted from all the cutting and mashing and trying to figure out what she would eat. after all that she still didn't eat much of it.
so now its bedtime! humm whats tonight gonna be like. well it took her from 6-7 to eat dinner tonight cus of all the fighting so once we got her out of the high chair (bri was home late again) so i started her playtime before he got home to tire her out a little. whats next on the list... yep nursing! but after a day like today i didn't know what was gonna come my way. around 8 i tried nursing and well.... first time for everything katie BIT me! and not just once. i mean half a dozen times and OUCH it hurt!
so.... i said omg forget this. she had only drank for maybe one or two minutes before biting so she didn't' nurse much. its almost as if she is eating enough today just so she isn't hungry. i started to get worried about how she was going to go to bed on an empty tummy. i mean she had practically no dinner and now no milk. so i went into the kitcen and fixed a bottle. katie hasn't had formula since the week she was born maybe once or twice and then once since then so she isn't familiar with the bottle or formula itself so i tried it and no luck. someone told me to maybe try it in a sippy cus cus she is enjoying that so much so i went in the kitchen and tried sippy cup. no luck. she took one sip and realized what it was and said no sir!
so i said alright crib time. time to cry it out. being night number 6 and night number 4 she slept through the night and number 5 i screwed up i thought tonight would be a toss up . she hasn't' eaten well so who knows.

so i talked to my girlfriend and she told me that not eating is a sign of teething. now of course i know this but i didn't' relate the two during the day cus katie wasn't acting like she did when she was teething at 7 months and the first two teeth came in. katie used to drool like crazy, she would cry, and was so fussy, i couldn't make her laugh or smile, she was just a fussy, cranky, crabby baby when her teeth were coming in. today she just wouldn't eat. she didn't need Tylenol, or teething tablets, she wasn't gnawing on toys or her fingers like she does normally so i never thought of teething. now my girlfriend says her baby acted different each round of teeth that came in. hummmm ahhhhhhhh so maybe she is acting this way for the this round and differently last time. hummm learn something new every day!
i checked tonight and didn't see any whites of new teeth coming in but who knows. maybe she will sleep well tonight and by tomorrow she will have some new teeth! wishful thinking. thats about all i have left when it comes to bed time!

night number 5

well after monday's sleeping through the night i was hoping last night would follow. we had a busy day yesterday with a play date and a few errands. she slept great in the morning even though she was up at 5am for the day. monday she was up at 6 and took her morning nap at 830-1130 and then in the afternoon 230-430 so she slept for 5 hours and then went to bed at 830 and slept through the night so yesterday when she got up at 5 instead of 6 i just went with it. i did nurse her actually hoping she would sleep for another hour but when 6:00 hit i got out of bed and said ok i guess we are up for the day. (she hadn't gone back to sleep, just played with us in bed for a little while) so i got up hoping this would be another great day full of naps and hoping the evening would be great too! well up at 5, nursed her and breakfast was at 630, she was asleep for a nap by 815. i talked to a girlfriend the other day who mentioned giving up the nursing before the morning nap and i tried it cus katie had just finished breakfast and then it was time for morning nap so she didn't really want milk. she did nurse a little but not enough to get much out of it so i think tomorrow i'll try to eliminate it and see how it goes. well she slept from 815 to 10 and then had lunch and slept from 230-4. she was following the same schedule as the day before when she slept through the night so i was hoping for another night of peace and quiet.
well i spoke to another girlfriend and let her know of our accomplishments through the cry it out method and i mentioned everything was kinda falling into place; waking up earlier, earlier nap, earlier lunch and then afternoon nap before 330 which is when it used to be however i mentioned we are still going to bed around 830 and she said that was kinda late. so last night i tried to move that up a little. now she did say do it 15 minutes a night so its not so drastic but katie was starting to show signs of being tired earlier than that so i tried it about a half hour earlier. ehhhh didn't' really work but i think its cus a few other things were off.
when we finished dinner last night it was almost 7. i feed her at 6 but she took a while to eat so it was getting later and later and i still had to nurse her before bed but it was becoming clear that nursing was going to be pretty close to dinner so i worry she wont' drink much in that case which is actually exactly what happened. we had some play time but bri wasn't here again cus he was at our neighborhood meeting so i did play time and then i tried to nurse her but it was so close to dinner she wasn't hungry. it had been working so well to nurse before bath and bed but unfortunately katie wanted nothing to do with milk at that time so i just moved on to the bath and tried nursing her after. she still wasn't hungry but was showing signs of being tired. i went ahead at 8 rather than 830 and put her in bed after drinking very little, nursing for maybe 3 or 4 minutes. she screamed for 5 minutes, i mean she was protesting and standing in her crib telling me it was NOT TIME FOR BED! i mean it was only a half hour earlier than she is used to, can she really tell the difference??? anyway i went in after 5 minutes and lay her back down and she was quiet for the next 5. i thought omg wow this has worked! i can't believe it. another night of peace. how is this possible! well after that 5 minutes she was tricking me cus she sat back up and started up again. 5 more minutes of crying, not as hard but she was again telling me she was not ready. i let her cry like this for another 15 minutes and continued to go in after 5 and then 10to lay her back down adn tell her it was time for bed. by 845 katie was now really upset and her cry had changed. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh smarty pants was hungry finally. she had had dinner at 6 and it had been a while so she was ready for milk.
against my better judgement i went in and fed her. i know i know it was wrong but she really hadn't eaten and i don't' think its fair to put her down without any milk so... i fed her and she fell asleep in her crib within a few minutes of whining after that. ahhhhhhh i dunno if i followed the crying it out method properly last night but she woke again at 930, about a half hour after i put her down just to be patted on her back and then proceeded to sleep until 1. ughhhhhhh the first thing i think of when i get up at 1 is OH NO have i really messed her up that bad in one night that she is up to eat??? i get up to go lay her back down and that usually puts her right to sleep lately but not last night!
first of all i had to get her out of the crib cus somehow the crib sheet was damp. or so i thought. keep in mind i was half asleep. ughhhh so i got her up and changed her and the crib which of course woke her up. her diaper wasn't huge but her back felt cold as if wet so ughhhhhhhh i changed everything at 1am. and then... well i'm sorry bri i have to let her cry.
after ten minutes and the clock is rounding 130am i think... humm should i just feed her? i mean how long can i let her go like this. (oh and by the way... bri is sleeping through the whole thing at this point) should i just feed her adn get her back to sleep??? oh goodness me have i screwed up big time? ahhhhhhhh
well as 2am rounded and bri has now woken up and half asleep asks me whats going on i of course snap at him cus i'm so frustrated at myself for messing her sleep up last night. ughhh so now bri is pissed, i'm pissed and katie is screaming and its 2am. OMG i can not handle this. i really don't know if this is worth it. i mean if i had just fed her at 1am then she would have just fallen back asleep... i think.... and then we could have avoided all this nonsense for this hour in the middle of the night. well at 215 i picked her up and fed her. she was back asleep in a second but in all fairness she did eat a bunch. and this morning she was up again at 545.
ahhhhh sighh..... and now it starts all over again!

night number 4

one thing i forgot to mention about last night was after she went to bed at 1 she slept till 6 meaning i didn't feed her at all which is great! i usually feed her when she wakes up aroudn 330 or 4 cus i feel like she is starving but just goes to show she lasted from the time i put her down until 6am with no food. that's a first!

well yesterday was less busy than sunday so katie spent a lot of the day sleeping! she slept for 5 hours yesterday before bed time. bri got home late so he didn't get to have the scheduled playtime like he has the past 3 days. then he had to get on a conference call so i did the bath and bedtime routine. i nursed her at 8 and by 830 she was bathed and ready for bed. bri was still on his call so he couldn't' say goodnight :( sad but i went ahead and put her in the crib and closed the door so her crying it out could begin. ahhhhh night number 4. i was praying that she would only cry for say 15 minutes rather than a half hour like night number 1 and 2. well turns out as i walked out of the room i set my timer for 5 minutes which i do so i can keep track of the time before i can go in there (if i don't' do that i lose track of time and don't give her the time she needs to cry and learn that's its bed time) and the first 3 minutes she just teetered around in her crib and played with her pacifiers and the one stuffed animal we have in there. minute 3 she started to cry and by the time my timer went off i went in there and laid her down to go to bed. i sang her twinkle twinkle little star like i do every night and she quieted down. as i left and set the timer again for another 10 she started to cry again. she cried for 2 minutes with the paci in her mouth which i have never seen her do and then she was asleep! holy cow is this working??? has this crying it out thing worked??? well lets see how the rest of the night goes!
well katie got up at 330 for a hot second and i gave her the paci out of habit. i don't even remember getting up but i wrote it down so when i woke up in the morning i saw i had gotten up. but she slept through the night. amazing!!!!!!! omg omg omg i was singing this morning after such a good nights sleep. no more zomby mommy! lets home tonight goes as well as last night!

night number 3

yesterday was a really busy day. katie only slept for 30 minutes in the car and then 45 minutes on a walk which all together equals way too little sleep. and none in a crib or bed meaning sound asleep did not exist yesterday! we tried to put her down for a nap at 2 and by 4 she was still awake so we just said forget it. it's night number 3 and she is gonna cry it out a bunch anyway so lets just get it started early. we did dinner a little early and then i nursed her and then bath with daddy.
i started rocking her and before i knew it, maybe 30 seconds into it she started closing her eyes so i ran over to the crib and placed her in there, sang her twinkle twinkle like i do every night and she was asleep. i thought i had done it but in an hour by 930 she was sitting up and whining. i went in there to lay her down like i am supposed to and she gave me a gasp and a look of pain. i picked her up against my best judgement but she had already been asleep so i thought it was alright (ehhh....) anyway she laid on my shoulder and as i scooted her down into the rocking position she gave me a glazed over look. she was staring at me with these eyes that were open but not awake. it was creepy. i kissed her on her mouth which usually annoys her and i was looking for some kind of reaction, any kind, to let me know she hadn't hit her head or something wasn't wrong cus she was acting strange, she didn't even flinch when i kissed her. humm this was strange too. i tried to make her laugh and she gave me the slightest grin and that's it before returning to a strange face. anyway i put her back in bed and left the room and as i was watching the monitor she just laid there with her eyes open staring at the wall. it was so bizarre. kinda freaky to see her laying there with the whites of her eyes in the monitor, not moving a muscle, not stirring or crying or rolling over... just laying on her back staring at the wall! in a few minutes she was asleep. i thought we were doing great but she was up at 1030, 1130 12 30 and then at 1. not screaming or anything, just stirring or sat up, rolled over or needed her pacifier. no big deal but i was tired. after 1:00 paci replacement, she was asleep until 6 this morning.

when she got up at 6 this morning i nursed her which usually makes her go back to sleep especially at 6am but this morning she was up! we had breakfast and by 830 she was asleep for her first nap of the day. she woke up 3 hours later at 1130. 3 hour nap!!!!! yikes! then it was time for our play date with Lyndsey and Callie
and then another nap this afternoon for 2 more hours! 5 hours of sleeping today.. humm i hope tonight goes well. i'm thinking she was just catching up on her sleep. i took a bunch oh photos of the girls today. baby racing down the hallway. it was so cute! this photo katie is clapping. hehe i have to try and get the clapping on video!

something cute today, katie woke up from her afternoon nap clapping. i have never seen her do that before!!! it was so cute. she had a huge smile on her face and she started clapping as she was waking up. hehe made me laugh! we also tried grapes today. katie wasn't crazy about them. she gave me a really funny face. i think they were too sour ;)

night number 2

well. last night was a little better. we unfortunately couldn't keep exactly to what the doctor asked us to do cus we went out for a date and katie was at my in laws so she fell asleep on the way home. i found it really hard to wake her up if she had already been asleep for 10 minutes in the car. we were supposed to wake her up and feed her and then do bath time so again... she doesn't associate food with bed. not that she does. i don't' think she does that but... we are trying it.
anyway, we got home and she woke up as we changed her into her pj's and diaper change. i nursed her and she ate plenty. rather than giving her a bath we just started the process of crying it out cus she was tired anyway.
i put her down and she cried for 5 minutes, we went back in after 5 and said goodnight and then layed her back down. another 10 minutes of screaming. that's the worst. about minute 15 she gets really loud and freaks out no matter how many times we have been in there. but good news. as i layed her down after 5 and then another 5 and then 10 minutes she fell asleep. minute 3 of the next 10 minute segment i like to call it (keeps me sane, like there is an end to the screaming. i set a timer!)
yep she fell asleep it was awesome. she really doesn't fall asleep on her own ever so this was a first!
she woke up at 1ish and just like last night i didn't want her to wake up bri so i picked her up and she fell right asleep as soon as i gave her a hug and put her back down. she woke up again at 430 and oooppps i fed her. but i thought she was hungry, grabbing at my shirt usually means that. she slept till 730 this morning and we had to wake her up cus we had to be an hour away by 9am for a friends christening. she did great at church this morning and she wore the cutest little outfit. took a snapshot during the service. she was wearing her little Stuart Weitzman shoes too! how adorable!!!


oooo something else cute and new, yesterday she started clapping. i have been working on teaching her to clap for weeks now and especially for the past few days i have really been working on it and yesterday she was sitting on the couch and she just decided to do it. it was sooooooo cute. today she has been a clapping machine. every time i say yeahhhhhhhhh katie!!!!! she starts or tries to clap. she is still a little shakey but its great to see her learn something i have taught her. makes me feel like i'm doing something right cus god knows i've messed her up plenty already with this sleeping schedule. i'm trying very hard but this is one of the hardest things i have ever done!

night number 1

ahhhhhhh last night was awful. we let her cry it out for 5 minutes, another 5, then 7, then 10 and then i went in there like i had been to say night night its time for bed, i love you and she had a big poopy diaper. so i layed her on the changing table and she fell asleep before i was done with her diaper. so i feel like it took about 30 minutes all together. she woke up at 130 and i nursed her which i wasn't supposed to do but bri had just fallen asleep and i didn't want him to wake up soooo i broke the rules on night number one... i just couldn't let her start the whole process up to tell him katie was in bed with us katie fell asleep. and she isn't a great sleeper so this was strange. she must have been tired cus usually i have to work HARD to get her to go to sleep. we're talking rock her for 30 minutes or so; so for her to have fallen asleep i thought she needed it. she didn't wake till 930 this morning. now i know this was my mistake. i should have gotten her up and kept her up at 730 and then she would have gone down for an early nap. instead she was awake for the entire day until 230 and only napped for an hour and a half. that's it for the whole day! so lets see how tonight goes!

loves playing with bubbles!

9 month check up!

Katie had her 9 month check up this week and she did great. Only one shot which wasn't so bad but the best part of the visit was that my favorite doctor was back from maternity leave. oh i love her!!! she is great and she is the reason i stay with that practice. katie brought her a little baby gift ;)One of my favorite parts of the well baby check ups are when they get weighed. Katie is doing great. eating 3 meals a day plus nursing a few times a day, before bed, and when she wakes up so she was measuring 19 lbs and 27and 3/4 inches. doctor said that was perfect!
The one thing we went to the doctors ready to ask was about katie's sleeping. it's no secret that katie isn't the best of sleepers but our pediatrician brke it down for us and made the new schedule a little less intimidating than most of the books i have read and people that i have talked to. most people tell me i'm doing my entire day wrong and that screws my nights up so i have to change everything. Great... thanks a lot! but my doctor said to try a few small things at bed time and it might correct some of her other timing problems during the day like her late naps and lack there of. This piece of paper is gonna change my life. lol if i can stick to it and if "crying it out" method works.
she pretty much told me to separate nursing from bed time so she doesn't wake up wanting food cus she associates food with night time. although i don't think katie wakes up to eat its something to adjust that might help. that brings us to problem number two. bri went to the ped's office thinking 2 things; katie needs to eat at night still (which the ped corrected him. katie does not need to eat,) and that katie has a separation problem with me. I kinda rolled my eyes and said helloooooo i take care of her, what do u expect but the pediatrician said ok we can solve this; daddy, when u come home, u feed katie, u play with her and then u do bath time. HAHA made me laugh. not exactly what bri wanted to hear i'm sure. coming home after a hard day at work and then having to do everything with katie. haha. well anyway i have to work on separating a little more. i'm gonna start to drop her off an hour a week at my in laws house and get grocery shopping done or go get my nails done or maybe take a nap! it will be better for everyone i think.
so at the end of the piece of paper with this new plan on it, she says let katie cry for 5 then 10 then 15 minutes. do not pick her up, do not feed her! i don't know if u can see that written there but its hanging on our fridge and come friday night we are gonna try out this method. doctor said best to try it out on a friday night cus it will take 3 days and she will understand it. HAHA we'll see.