::Henley:: What a Difference a Year Makes

As I was looking at this post, the chalkboard felt a little familar...

Funny what can change in a year...

Mere :-)

::Henley:: Month 10!

Every month I say the same thing, I know, but this month seriously flew by the fastest. I don't know if it was all of the work we have done on the house or if it is just this time of year but I feel like Baby Girl is going to be one by the time I finish this post!

Month 10, ok here we go!

Weight:

No update on the weight officially but I am guessing she has gained about a pound. She is slowly creeping into her clothes and shoes that were previously too big so I am thinking we have had a slight growth spurt over the last few weeks or so

Health:

We have had another month of good health. We have gotten the occasional snotty nose here and there but no biggie. If anything Henley is her own worse enemy rather than germs---having a mobile baby means bumps and bruises here and there. Last week she had a tiny little bruise under her eye but no one knew what from. She didn't see to mind it though.

Sleep:

Oh what can I say---well I can tell you this, we had one wake up last night, one! I know there are those out there with babies that have been sleeping 10-12 hours for months but for us, this is huge.

A few weeks ago I wrote about doing sleep training again. Well we are on week 3 of that and everything is going really great. She goes down in her crib wide awake, I give her the lovey, cover her with a blanket and she falls asleep. Sometimes she cries for a minute but most of the time she just rolls on her belly and knocks out. 

One of my biggest problems before was Henley was waking at 5am and then wouldn't go back down. Once I started this CIO, I decided to just wake up, nurse her, and see if she would go back down and she did. This waking has slowly started to creep into the 4 o'clock hour but doesn't really matter to me. Most nights she wakes around 2 and around 4/5. 

I am really excited that the nights are going so well. I have been debating about night weaning. On one hand I know she is just waking out of habit and think I should wean her but on the other, I know she will only be nursing for 2 more months (at most if I am lucky) so I think what's the big deal now.

Clothing:

Girlfriend is finally wearing her Tiny Toms! I am so excited about this. When I was pregnant, Zulily was running a deal on Toms. I immediately got a pair for her in a size 3. They finally fit and she has worn them a couple of times!

We are still fitting in most of our 9 month clothing but are now also wearing 12 months. The 12 month pants are a tad long but overall they fit well. I am excited for the 12 month clothes coming up for cold weather---can we say sweater dresses and ribbed leggings!

 Oh yes--mom and Henley were twinsies once again :-)

Diet:

Before I start this I want to disclaim that I am 100% grateful that I have successfully nursed her this long. Ok now the wine...I am running out of milk! I am not pumping anywhere close to what I was and we are using a bag or two of frozen milk every day for daycare. At this rate I will have depleted my stash in about 3 weeks. Since I am a week late with this post that puts us at 11 months. I know it's only one month shy and I'm sure I'll be able to still pump something but dang! so close. :-(

Other than this, Miss Henley eats everything! Lately her favorites consist of watermelon, cheese raviolis, and an orzo pasta that I make with carrots, broccoli, and zucchini. She also loves any and all puffs and is doing great with her water in the sippy cup. 

Dinner time with her is seriously one of my favorite thing, probably because she makes hilarious faces.

Baby Gear Love:

Now that we are fully settled into the house, we are walking with Henley every night with her tricycle that I mentioned in her 9 month post. Most days she just props her feet up and enjoys the ride. There are sometimes where we push our luck and try to stretch the walk and she's not having it but we really love the tricycle.

I also recently purchased the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Singing Puppy. At first I don't think she was a fan but now she will move it around and play with it for a little while. 

Crying:

It's safe to say Henley has learned that crying makes us do whatever it takes to get her to stop. She hardly ever cries really hard but every now and then she is a little bit of a drama queen, mainly when it comes to the changing table---which sucks because when she was little, that was the best part!

Social:

We had another play date with our friend Ella. She came over and the girls played in the pool. The best part was after everyone was done in the pool, we gave them puffs on the patio and they both were so focused on eating. I swear these two are the same baby.

Henley's cousin Alaina turned three and we went to the Park for a "Brave" birthday party. All of the little girls wore a headband with ribbons tied to it to mimic Merida's red, curly hair and Henley was not excluded. She even had her own!

We also went to the Pumpkin Patch and got the best pictures! I blogged about it here.

Postpartum:

I think it's safe to say I am back to normal :-)

Milestones:

Henley is now fully standing without holding on to anything. She has taken a few steps here and there but it seems like she isn't keen on the whole no balance thing. It's super cute to see her trying to take steps.

She also is SO chatty, she gets it from Dad. She said a lot of sounds but lately she says Mama and Dada to us. We are answering her and it seems like she just babbles on, she always has a lot to say ;-)

We are looking forward to Halloween and Trick or Treating with Henley this year. Not sure if we will actually go around the neighborhood but we have a ton of kids in our new neighborhood so I am excited to see everyone. I'll be sure to post pictures!

Hump Day is upon us, let's pray it's a smooth one!

Mere :-)

::Henley:: Pumpkin Patch Visit

To many people the beginning of October signifies cool weather and the changing color of the leaves. While we don't have that in Florida we do have things that feel like fall to us. One of those is definitely picking out a pumpking (or two). We took Henley to her first pumpkin patch and hubs (as usual) got some great shots!!

Now we just need to get one carved! Have you been to a patch this year yet?

Mere :-)

::Henley:: Sleep--what's that?!

Sleep---this has been a topic of conversation for many weeks in our household. For the past four weeks Henley has been waking more frequently and taking longer to put down, even needing us doing everything short of climbing in the crib with her. She ended up coming to bed with us every night simply because we were too exhausted to fight her.

All of these sleep issues were driving us crazy so to Google I went. I was reading so many different articles and I couldn't really decide which course of action to take. I read it was a typical sleep regression that would pass, I read that if she was acting like this then she must be having issues with separation anxiety, and I read (and wrote) multiple message board posts of mom's asking for help. Once we had been having these issues for two weeks I decided that it must just be a phase and she obviously needs me. This too shall pass (plus who would complain about night long snuggles!). After four full weeks of this I was singing a different tune...enter Troublesome Tot Blog to the rescue!

I came across this blog at work on Friday and I felt like she was talking to me. Everything she was writing was exactly our situation. She explained that babies around Henley's age start learning "object permanence", here is how she describes it:

Most babies develop a new skill around 6 months (give or take a month) calledobject permanence. Prior to this for babies, out of sight LITERALLY meant out of mind. Now they can remember things, people, etc. exist even when they can’t see them. This is closely linked with stranger/separation anxiety which occurs because now your child actually remembers that you exist when you aren’t physically present. For the first time they are capable of missing you. Which is really sweet but often hard to enjoy. It also means that they are now capable of remembering that you were THERE when they fell asleep but are MISSING when they wake up.

This hit home so I definitely kept reading. Here are the links that restored my faith in the prospect of a good night's sleep---here, here, here, here, here, and here.

After reading all of these articles plus more I decided that it was time to cry it out again. It worked the first time so I had faith it would work again but I knew hubs would hate this idea----rationally he knows something had to change but no one wants to make their baby cry. I decided to forego the checks as I have learned that the checks with Henley get her more upset.

Since I found all of this on Friday we thought it was the perfect time to start being it was the weekend. Friday night we had a relaxing bedtime routine of bath, book, and nursing. I picked her up, gave her a big hug and a kiss, and told her I loved her and good night/sleep tight. I closed the door, grabbed the monitor, a bottle of wine and my Kindle, and headed to the back porch. [Dad had a planned escape to the grocery store ;-)] She immediately started crying, standing up and angrily shaking her lovey around. I had the monitor with me and had the volume turned down but I could see she was crying. I prayed she would just lay down and make it easier on us all. After 29 minutes, she curled into a little ball, grabbed her lovey, and was down for the count! Success!!

I was thrilled especially since Troublesome Tot Mom said that it's common for babies to cry up to an hour on the first night---I was expecting that but hoping for way less. 29 minutes---I could definitely handle this. Here was night one:

6:47 - Mom says goodnight, Henley immediate cried

7:16 - Out!

1:55 - Up for nursing

2:05 - Finished nursing, Mom leaves the room and she cried

2:16 - Out for the rest of the night

5:30 - Up for the day, brought her in our bed (typically gets up another hour)

6:45 - Up with Dad

7:45 - Mom wakes thanks to my amazing husband! [Love you so much!]

Henley is still waking during the night (prior to this phase) once a night so I didn't want to worry about CIO and weaning at the same time so I fully expected her to wake. I am planning to wean the night nursing after I get 3-4 weeks of good sleep from her. 

Night 2 went a little weird. She went down at 6:30 after only 30 seconds of crying but woke up at 10:45 crying. She would lay down for 3-5 minutes, appearing asleep, then would wake up again crying. She seemed in pain and since I can't tell if she's teething (still no teeth here), I went ahead and gave her Motrin. She was still fussing and was wide awake so I went to get her and bring her to our bed (bad I know!). After about an hour she was still awake and just was playing so I took her back to her room and put her to bed. She fell asleep within 5 minutes and slept until 5-5:30.

Tonight she went down at 6:40 and cried for only a minute. I feel such a peace with this plan, even considering her mid-night waking yesterday. I really feel this is what I should be doing and she had a great weekend of naps as well. I look forward to seeing how she continues and how the weaning of the night nursing goes. I will definitely keep you all posted.

Any other mama's out there going through the same thing? What have you found that works?!

Hope you have a great week!

Mere :-)