::Henley:: 8 is Great!

Weight
Last we heard she was 18 lbs, that was about 2 weeks ago at the doctor's. I read somewhere that they grow about a half of a pound a month for the next couple months. I measured her the other day standing and she was around 26", still 3" to go before we grow out of her infant car seat. (yay!)


Health

If you read my blog regularly you know that we have had a rough bout of sickness lately around this house. For the last week or so we seem to be back to normal overall. Henley has a little congestion going on but that is typical about once a month.

Sleep

When Henley was sick over the last few weeks her sleep patterns got very wonky. I mentioned last week that we started trying the Interval Method of Crying it Out. We started on a Friday since we wouldn't have to work the next day in case it was a total disaster. She cried for 30 minutes the first night. The first four days went great! We read that after a few days of CIO they can have a setback and you kind of have to start over. This was night 5 for us. Since then it's been a little rocky. She is falling asleep but it's just taking a little longer to get her there and she is crying a little longer. 

Clothing

She's still wearing 6 months onesies but they seem to be getting pretty tight on the length. Her 9 month PJ's are about stretched to the max, I just ordered some 12 month PJ's that should be here soon. Most of her other clothing is 9 months and fitting great. I did just wash her 12 month clothing because I'm learning that some brands run small and I have missed out on a couple really cute outfits because of this!

Diet

Mama's Milk: I can't believe we have made it 8 months breastfeeding. This month we had my first issues with supply. I think all of the sickness and being dehydrated affected my supply. I took fenugreek for about 5 days (totally smelled like maple syrup too-ugh) and with that and extra pumping sessions I am finally back to normal!

Solids: Henley has tried a ton of different foods. In the last 2-3 days it seems like she wants to feed herself. I think she has a independent personality and I am starting to see that. We are going to try giving her food to feed herself and see if that works better. She still loves apples and sweet potatoes but also is a fan of squash, pears, pastini, and carrots. She also loves the baby cereal puffs and it's so adorable seeing her pick them up and put them in her mouth.

Baby Gear Love

When Henley was home sick with Grandma Patricia, Daddy bought her this Music Table activity center. She loves it! She doesn't like to play sitting very often anymore so this is perfect. She opens and closes the little laptop over and over again. It's seriously adorable!

Henley has really been loving this Sit to Stand Walker. It's seriously adorable to see her playing on it and climbing on it. She's recently started trying to walk behind it!!

When we were out of town we went to a craft fair and there was a seller with these little chairs. I fell in love and for $25 I couldn't pass it up. She loves it and it is so adorable!

Crying

Separation anxiety is in full force. She is starting to get very sad when we leave the room which makes me feel so bad! She is so funny with the crying sometimes, she will be crying and fussing but then smiling, it's pretty funny. She is crying more than she was but still not a lot at all---mostly when she's feeling left out.

Social

We have had a pretty exciting month. We took our first trip overnight with Henley. We went to a friend's lake house in Lake Placid. Henley even took her first boat trip.

Slept the whole car ride there

Love this picture!! Getting ready to go on the boat

Watching Daddy wake board

We went to the park a few times and Henley loves the swing. It's super adorable to see how big she smiles while on it!

Postpartum

Since getting over the virus and cold I have felt great. I've started consistently taking vitamins and this week I have felt like I'm getting my groove back. Hoping to keep that up and get healthy for good!

Milestones

Standing!

  

Full Blow Crawling (Fast!) 

Feeding Herself

Clapping!

This month has really been great. I cannot believe that she will be a year old in four months. It's totally insane! Hopefully her 9 Month post will be in our new house!

Happy Sunday all!

Mere :-)

::Henley:: Sleep Training Day 2

Day two was much less eventful.She fell asleep in the car during her usual afternoon nap yesterday and only slept 20 minutes. By the time 6:30 rolled around she was exhausted. We kept her awake until 7:15 or so and I went in her room to nurse her. She was falling in and out of sleep while nursing and I tried to keep her awake as best as I could.

About 10 minutes later she finished nursing and I laid her in the crib. She wasn't totally asleep but definitely getting there. She didn't make one peep! She slept until 12:45, I got up and nursed her and she went right back down. There was 1-2 cries at this time and again at 5 when she woke. She woke up for the day at 7:30.

She has been in a great mood these last two days, it's so good to see her well and healthy and back to her old self!

She is napping now before we head out for a day of romping, shopping, and lunch. She will be totally exhausted by the time that's over. :-)

Happy Sunday all!!

Mere :-)

::Henley:: Sleep Training Day 1

This image is too funny...and quite accurate! Henley is almost 8 months old and we have had a relatively smooth time with nights. In the beginning (and by beginning I mean the first 5 months) she got up every two hours to nurse but always went right back down. It was tough getting up but I got used to it and her going back down easily made it much easier.

Around 5 months she teased me with a few days of sleeping 10+ hours through the night. Since then, she started waking once, sometimes twice a night to nurse. I still didn't mind this because just like before, she always went back down. 

Starting about three weeks ago, Henley started having pretty erratic nights of sleeping. There were a few days were she was up for 2-3 hours wide awake, there were nights she wouldn't go down for an hour or two, there were nights of her crying inconsolably, and in most of these situations she would end up in our bed. I love co-sleeping with her and we have done it quite a bit over the months but now that she is so much bigger, no one sleeps great when she's in our bed. It's amazing that someone so teeny could take up so much of the bed!

All of this brings us to last night and sleep training night one.

Since before Henley was born I had been strongly opposed to "crying it out". I thought there had to be other ways and since she was ultimately sleeping pretty well, I didn't really need to worry about any sleep training. These last three weeks got my wheels turning and I spent quite a bit of time researching other methods. I took some tips and tricks and tried there here and there, some worked and some failed. I asked a lot of people that have been here before me and every single person used CIO to get there littles to sleep. This was not what I wanted to hear. I wanted people to tell me that they got sleep and didn't havea screaming baby in the process.

Starting around Tuesday or so of this week I started discussing CIO with Teddy. He was not on board what-so-ever but I went over the stats of our friends' experiences that I collected. On Thursday I came across Isis Parenting's Webinars that discuss CIO, also know as Interval Sleep Training or Ferber, and both Teddy and I listened and considered this was the right thing to do.

Initially thinking about CIO, I pictured Henley crying for hours being left alone, feeling abandoned. The webinar stated that it doesn't have to be total abandonment, meaning we could pick whatever time intervals we see fit to go in and console her while she was crying. 

We decided last night (Friday) would be the best since it would give us the weekend to recoup in case it went terribly wrong. We decided on night one to use timed check-in intervals of 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, etc. I also knew that I would soothe her by picking her up and doing a quick rocking to get her to calm down. The webinar suggests one parent lead the charge and since Teddy still wasn't loving the idea, although he was on board, we decided I would do it. I have to admit I was nervous! Getting her ready for bed, I actually had a knot in my stomach! So away we went and here is how our night went:

6:30: Feed Henley dinner, she had carrots and loved them!

6:50: Dad gave her a bath

7:10: Diaper and PJ time!

7:20: In the nursery, nursing Henley one last time before bed.

7:28: In the crib, Mom leaves the room

She would cry for 30 seconds, put her fingers in her mouth and calm down then repeat. It was hard to get one full minute of crying before I could go back in to soothe. 

7:33: Crying for one full minute, Mom in the room to soothe. I picked her up, cradled her until she calmed down. She started closing her eyes and sucking her fingers so I laid her back down. Major crying ensued, I left the room

She did the same thing with short bouts of crying

7:40: Crying for 2 full minutes, Mom in her room and soothing the same way. 

I think this time me going into the room made it worse! We let her cry a little longer this time. 

7:46: Crying 3 and a half minutes, Mom in the room to soothe and put her down. Started crying immediately when I left the room.

From this point until about 7:50 she would have 30 seconds of crying and about a minute of silence. She finally laid her head down around 7:54 and made her last peep at 7:58, exactly 30 minutes later. I was so relieved---not bad at all. 

She wasn't totally distressed this whole time, she was just pissed. I was also worried that she would be standing the whole time in the crib and that only last 1-2 minutes until she sat down and played with her Glow Seahorse and her little Lovey toy she has in the crib.

I was impressed. All of my nerves we put to rest and I was so relieved it went so well!! It felt liberating in a weird way. 

Henley slept from 7:58 - 1:45 (her normal wake time). I got up to nurse her and laid her back down awake. She cried for about 15 seconds before she totally passed out. She only nursed for about 4 minutes so I believe she is waking at this time out of habit. I planned to wean this feeding this week. She woke again at 5 so I got up and nursed her. I think she was actually hungry at this point because she nursed for a little while longer. Once she was finished I laid her in the crib awake again and she cried about the same, 15 seconds before she was out. She finally woke for the day at 7:26! Almost 12 hours of slightly broken sleep. It was glorious!

She is napping as we type/read and went down with about 3-4 cries, that's it! I'm so pleased this is working and it not traumatizing for either of us. She woke up SO happy and babbling like always. 

I hope tonight is similar and we are on our way to the next chapter with Henley. Despite being totally opposed to this in the beginning, I really think this worked well for us. I have to say that Teddy and I make every decision for Henley and her growth very thoughtfully. Every choice we have made from when to introduce a bottle to how to transition her to the crib has been made very seriously and this was no different. We did tons of research and made sure this was right for us. We tried other methods over the weeks and this was our last resort and it worked. Sometimes what we think we need doesn't always work out and we go back to the drawing board. I love that I have a husband that is considerate and thoughtful in these decisions with me. (Although he did tell Henley this was my idea last night before bed lol) ;-)

Wish us luck tonight, I hope it goes well!!

Happy Saturday folks---Henley and I are having a mom and daughter shopping day when she wakes up from her nap!

Mere :-)

::Life:: Updates Henley, Etsy, and House

Can I just say “sigh”?! I haven’t posted anything in a while but for good reason---it has been crazy!! I thought it best to just do one giant update post to bring everyone up to speed!


First (of course) Henley! I’m sure you recall from our last few monthly update posts that she has been sick here and there; well we have officially tested her immune system lately. But what’s even more exciting is the Mom and Dad have also been tested (and failed!) in the immunity arena. Here is what the last two months have looked like in the G House:


June 17th: Henley gets a cold and we go to the doctor, out of day care for two days

June 23rd: Mama catches the cold just like the doctor predicted

July 1st: Mama’s not getting better but getting worse, go to the Dr. and bronchitis it is, out of work 3 days

July 2nd: Dad gets a terrible stomach bug and is laid up in bed, out of work 3 days

July25th: Day care calls for us to come get her---pink eye! Mom takes her to the dr.

July 26th: Can’t go to daycare, dad takes off. Aunt Allies watches Henley while Dad goes to the Dr’s, he’s been getting fevers all week, diagnosed as virus

July 29th: Back at daycare for 2 hours before they call with thrush! It is Dad’s turn for the Pediatrician.

July 30th: Attempt to go back to day care but she’s miserable and getting a cold Mom takes a half day and grandma takes the last half

July 31st: Grandma Patricia flies in and keeps her the rest of the week to give time for the thrush and the cold to heal!

Aug 3rd: Mom gets a fever and is sick---looks like a virus

Aug 4th: Back in daycare for a full day!

As you can see that we have been exhausted and have been going to the doctor way too much, especially for someone with a high deductible insurance plan. But it’s looking up. We’ve had a great week and we hear the immune system starts getting stronger and stronger so hopefully we will start seeing less and less of this.


Secondly is sleep! Since she’s been sick off and on and also learning separation anxiety, sleep is suffering. She is no longer putting herself back to sleep and it’s taking us way longer to get her to sleep than before. We’ve been discussing a plan and it looks like Ferber may be coming into play. I’ve been against Cry it Out Methods in the past but after talking to many, many people with kids, I haven’t found one person that didn’t use Cry it Out to sleep train their little ones. I’m thinking that we should definitely do it on a weekend so maybe this weekend?? We will see! All I know is that everyone needs sleep!


Third is my Etsy Shop—It is going so well! I have had at least 4-5 orders a week totaling 33 orders. With being sick though it has been challenging at times getting these out but I’m so grateful it’s going well! I’ve made enough to buy my first “investment” for the business and was able to get an Embroidery Machine. I have spent zero time figuring it out yet but I’m excited for the possibilities!


Lastly is the house! The house is 99% complete, just waiting on the pool. Last Friday we walked through the house with the Superintendent on the job and just made sure we didn’t have anything major for them to fix and noted little things here and there for them to correct. The pool should be finished in the next 2-3 weeks, and then we will just need a screen enclosure for the pool and site work. We are looking to close the 2nd week of September. I cannot wait---the hubs and I have been looking at furniture and planning everything. It’s getting so exciting!


Well I think that’s a pretty good base line for us to start chatting again. Hope you have a great Thursday! The week is almost over!

Mere :-)