Paige's 6 Month Check-up

Paige was such a trooper today. She played it up for the doctor and showed her all of the things she can do (sitting up, etc). She is right on target for a 6 month old. We now have to work on clapping and waving for the 9 month check-up. She is 15lbs 5oz now, 25 3/4 long. She is right in the middle of everything. The doctor was estimating she will only be 5'4", but we will see.

We gave her tylenol when we first got there so it had kicked in by the time she had her vaccines. She did great (Only 3 shots this time). She cried, but I nursed her right after and she was smiling by the time we left. She was a little cranky, but she took a long nap this afternoon.

Last night was good. She went to sleep early (7pm), slept until 2- ate and went back to sleep until almost 7am. Tonight she just went down at 7:30. Hopefully tonight will be good to. Now we are just looking forward to our 1st baseball game on Sunday.

This Is How I Roll!

Paige is really starting to move now. She is rolling to wherever she wants to go. It won't be long until she starts to crawl.

On the sleeping front- Last night was miserable. She went to bed with little to no protesting and I thought maybe things are getting better. But she woke up just under 3 hours later and continued to scream for 2 hours. I finally gave in and nursed her to sleep because I needed to get some sleep for work. I think she may be having problems teething again.

Anyways- Here is a video of her rolling around our living room.

6 Month Pictures

Today went pretty well. She was not quite her happy self, but she smiled enough. She started getting cranky towards the end of the session. She is sitting up pretty good by herself so that was fun. We then had a long day of shopping and she was pretty good overall. I am attaching a few pictures from todays session. I tried to pick ones that you will not be getting in the mail soon (I don't get the printed ones until around 6/2 so they will be in the mail soon after that).

She loves the sweet potatoes so much that she did not even want rice cereal today after she had her taste of sweet potatoes. Not sure what that means. But we go to the doctor on friday so we will get more information then. For now- Enjoy the pics.

Eating is fun.

She loves eating. She had her first taste of food besides rice cereal today (Sweet potato's). Hard to believe that she will be 6 months on Friday. We are taking her pictures tomorrow since my grandma is visiting. I thought people might want so see some pictures of her eating from the last week or two.

On the sleeping front, it is still a challenge. It takes her on average 30-40 minutes to fall asleep. She is waking up around 11:30 or midnight and then around 5, nursing one of thos times. She then sleeps til 6:45 or sometimes until 8pm. The last couple of nights have been tough, but there has also been a heat wave and our air broke on Saturday afternoon so the fact that our house is hottttttt, could be the problem. We will keep you posted.

Night 4 & 5

Night 4 was pretty amazing. It was my birthday. We had my family over for dinner so we would not get her routine thrown off. She was almost falling asleep during dessert so we started her bedtime routine and put her down around 7:50. It took about 30 minutes for her to fall asleep (8:20). She slept until 4:20 (8 hours!), had her diaper changed and fed (Up for about 40 minutes). She was smiling at me as if to say, Good Morning Mommy! Is it time to play? I just smiled at her and put her back in her crib. She went back to sleep without a peop until 6:45.

Night 5 was more like night 3. Justin put her down since I was at bible study. But she only took 15 minutes or so to sleep. She slept until 12:45, when she woke up because she pooped and was hungry. After feeding, and crying for a few more minutes (40 minutes of awake time) she fell back asleep until 6:45 AM.

This is a process, but it is nice to sleep with my husband alone again. I am still not sleeping too well since I wake up several times thinking she is making a sound and she is not.

Sleep Training, Night 3

Well, last night was not as good as night two, but not as bad as night one, so I guess that is still progress.

She had to go to bed a little early since her last nap was around 3 and I have discovered that if she goes to be too early she does not sleep as well. We put her down around 7:20 and she cried for about 45-50 minutes. She slept until around 10:15. She cried for about 5 minutes and then went back to sleep for about an hour. I got up and nursed her, thought she would go right back to sleep but she kept crying for about 30 or 40 more minutes. But then she slept until just before 7am. So overall it was not too bad of a night.

I think if she takes her late afternoon nap, she does much better in the early evening and night is better. We will see how tonight plays out.

Sleep Training, Night 2

Wow! What a difference a night can make. I had plans on Saturday night to go out with my friends and see my favorite artist, Justin McRoberts, in Concord at the Vineyard/Shelter Church. (More about that later). So the bedtime routine and initial crying was in Justin's hands. She did great!

8:15-8:45 Put To bed, Awake- Crying

8:45-2:45- Sleeping (6 hours!)

2:45-2:55 off & on crying/whining (No screaming more whining and may not have even lasted 10 minutes)

2:55-5:55- Sleeping (3 more hours)

5:55- Nursed her and she was still tired so I put her back to bed.

6:00-6:15- Slept until she was ready to get up at 6:15- with a big smile.

Amazing! I hope it just keeps getting better.

I had a wonderful time last night. Justin McRoberts concerts are not expenisive ($10 with his new cd) but are alway worth 5 times what you pay. He plays for about 2 hours. Sings 2 songs at a time and then talks in between. He is almost like a comedian because he tells great stories! It was wonderful. Weird being out until 10:30 ish, but worth it. Plus- since my baby slept until 3, I got 4 hours of initial sleep and then another 3 hours. It was a great way to start of my mothers day & birthday.

Sleep Trainin, Night 1

Last night (Friday) was our first night of sleep training. She is 5 1/2 months old and was still waking up every couple of hours to eat and could not fall asleep on her own. She would only sleep for 30-45 minutes in her crib. Justin & I were tired and we had tried some other, more gentle methods, but all Paige did was scream. So we adapted a method from the Baby Sleep Solution.

We had a plan, and surprisingly we stuck to it.

At 7:30 we started the bedtime routine
8pm put her to bed- no pacifier- awake
8-9:05- She cried. We went in every 15 minutes or so to reassure her that we love her but it was time to sleep.
9:05-9:10- We thought she was sleeping, but...
9:10-9:35- She started crying again
9:35-11:55- She slept. I tried to sleep but I only managed about 1/2 of that because I kept "hearing things".
11:55-12:10- After letting her cry for 10 minutes and she did not calm down. I went in and fed her (We had decided to feed her if she woke up after 4 hours of not eating since she was used to eating every 2-3 hours). I put her down, almost asleep and she stayed that way
12:10-1:20- She slept
1:20-1:50- More crying- Justin went in and re-assured her twice
1:50-2:20- She slept
2:20-2:45- Woke up again- Justin changed her diaper and put her back to bed
2:45-3:25- More sleeping
3:25-3:40- More crying ( I was close to feeding her again since it had almost been 4 hours, but she only cried for 15 minutes this time and then was asleep again)
3:40- ? It is now 6:45 and she is still sleeping.

So night 1 was a little rough, but if she can pick-up the valuable skill of soothing herself to sleep we will all be better off in the long run. Hopefully tonight will be a little better, and tomorrow and little better, etc. Will keep you posted.

Good News I think!

Quick Update. The blood test results are in. She did not test positive to any allergens. So she is not allergic to milk, rice, soy, eggs, peanuts, cats, dogs, mold, pollen, dust and a few other things that she rattled off. So the good news is we can start the rice cereal again and she will like that. The bad news is that we still have to see what it is she is reacting too. She thinks it might be heat. And she thinks the other symtoms are related to teething.

I know I do not update too often, but I thought I would take a minute to post some new pictures of Paige. She is growing so fast. 5 months old now. This post and the next are some new pictures. I hope to post more in a little while when I hear from the Doctor with her blood test results.

This is what I look like when Daddy watches me.
She is so close to rolling over from her tummy to her back.
More time with Daddy.
Finally! A picture with Mom.

Picture Updates

She is learning to sit up
I love her hair in the morning
Sometimes you just need help with the laundry
Play time with Daddy.

Allergy Testing

After weeks of cutting out Milk products, she is still getting hives. They are still mostly on her back (Occasionally one will pop up somewhere else) and don't seem to be bothering her. But since we can't start food again until they go away, this is a problem. After talking to her doctor last Monday, she wanted to do some allergy testing. So on Thursday Justin brought her to the lab to have blood drawn. She did very good, only crying a little. We should know more later this week. I just want to know what it is that is bothering her so we can get her more comfortable. She has been having an upset stomach, slight diarrhea and not sleeping (I didn't know that could get worse) well this last week. So I am not sure if something I am eating now is bothering her more. I always wanted to be a detective, but this is not what I had in mind.