Spring?

The weather is breaking. It is a miracle. In the depths of winter you never believe that this weekend will ever arrive, but it did. We are in the 50's. When I grew up in the South, the 50's were sweater and fire weather, however I now live in the upper mid-west and the 50's are flip-flop summertime.

Because the weather has been so great it has been a big weekend for EG. We started our weekend at the local canoe and bike show. We met up with our friend L. EG was great with L and didn't seem to mind being toted around the arena. She took a stroll for the first time in her Burley. She went down the slide at the park for the first time. She got her first bike helmet that we will break in the afternoon and we got her first pair of shoes.

She is walking across rooms now. She is still a little unsteady, but she is doing it. We went to the park yesterday and realize the child needs some shoes, so today we went to StrideRite and got her first fitted pair of shoes. She put her little foot on the measuring device and the sales lady said, "What a fat little foot. She is a 4.5 extra-wide." Let's just say she doesn't have the feet for ballet.....

Video and Pic

A few points before the video

1. If you needed another reason that spring should hurry up......EG has spent the winter wearing fleece one-piece outfits. I am very tired of seeing her in the same ones day after day.

2. The fake cough. Anytime some coughs, sneezes, or burps EG gives a fake cough. She thinks it is funny. It cracks us up as well.

3. She has a new noise (see video). She makes this noise all day long. Tonight, I swear she did it for 20 minutes straight as she pushed her choochoo around.

4. We went and visited EG's three cousins. It was very fun. EG was great, but had to sleep with us, which was an adventure. She ended up sleeping on M's chest most of the night.

The Sleeping

Reflecting....

Phase I
The first four weeks of EG's little life she co-slept with us. She snuggled up to M and was slid over to me to nurse and then slid back to sleep with M. I will never regret co-sleeping with her when she was so tiny. It just felt right to have that little animal nested in between us.

Phase II
We moved to formula and the co-sleeper. EG would sleep for about 3 hours and then eat, rock, and then back in the co-sleeper.

Phase III
The move to the crib. As an infant, she slept like jesus, arms straight out to her sides and the co-sleeper wasn't wide enough to accommodate that position. So, then it was feed, rock, and put down in the spacious crib. This is where the 7:40 p.m. started. She slept well and mainly woke to eat. Around 10 weeks, she slept all night for about two weeks.

7:40 p.m. (DST) / 6:40 p.m. (CST)
At seven weeks old EG started predictably falling asleep at 7:40 p.m. Feed her, rock her, and she would pass out at that time -- everyday. When the time fell back, so did EG to 6:40 p.m. It hasn't changed in over 7 months.

Phase IV
This was by far the hardest phase. Around 3.5 months, EG's sleep went to hell. She was ALWAYS asleep by 7:40 p.m., but she woke up, ate at crazy times, had periods of awake time during the night, etc... It lasted until about 7.5 months. Now, during those four months there were periods of calm and progress, but it was very unpredictable and stressful.

Phase V
After one night of CIO (30 minutes of fussing...not screaming), EG slept through the night. She has done that for almost two months now. I would say that every 2 weeks or so we have a night that isn't perfect, but overall they are great. She still falls asleep 6:40 p.m. every single night.

The Rocking: During phases II and IV the rocking was constant. It would take hours to rock that girl to sleep. Feed, rock, change, repeat. At times it felt like you were chained to the rocker. However, I still rock her to sleep.

It doesn't take more than a few minutes and she easily transitions to her crib from my arms. I read about 100 books that told me not to rock her, but we are only having one child, we have the time, and we all enjoy it. We will continue to rock until one of us decides that it is time to stop. I assume that will be Phase VI.

E-

9 Month update -- 1 week late

EG is so close to taking a few steps you can feel it. She has take a step or two here or there, but she really doesn't get it yet. She can stand still for 15 seconds by herself. She can climb the entire flight of stairs quite proficiently. She has gotten taller and she has grown some hair, mainly in the back. She has six teeth and she is working on 7 and 8. She is very good at feeding herself. She can squat to pick things up and stand back up. She will look in things and under things for hidden objects. She has speeds of crawling. There is slow. There is purposeful. Then there is duck the head and haul booty.

She gives hugs to everything thing. She waves and says, "bah". She is in love with the dog. This is the most important develop lately. She stalks the dog every moment of the day. She will follow the dog into a dark room to pat her and give the dog hugs. The dog is trying to handle this well. She knows the garage door means someone is home.

She is trying to become a dishwasher repair person. She must inspect each corner of every rack. She can hear the dishwasher open from several rooms away. This results in the head down haul booty crawl to the kitchen. She is loving taking anything and everything out of its container (drawers, laundry baskets, boxes, cabinets, etc...). She loves to stand in our front windows and watch all the people in the neighborhood.

She sleeps through the night. She eats much better with more food variety. She thinks her passie is funny, but still only uses it to fall asleep. She loves to smile for the camera.










E and m

Adventures in Crawling

I try to keep the videos short for your enjoyment...

#6

Tooth #6 is just killing us. She isn't sleeping right or eating right. The gum is swollen and angry looking.

Her other 5 teeth took about 3-5 days each.....

This one is just forever...

EG's New Sound