Kenley update

Kenley is already almost 8 months and I am just holding tight to this sweet baby because it just is going by too fast.  Since she has been on the move for a while now, we expect she will be walking any day now.  She can stand herself up and has gotten brave enough to let go, a few times, if she has something in her hands.  She can keep balance for a few seconds before plooping back down to her hiney.  She likes to climb and is getting pretty good at climbing the stairs at Mom's...with no concept that rolling off the edge means a huge crash because she always has my mom as her safety net!  She can walk pushing something, usually Collier's stool or her music table, and she likes to try and climb on top of these as well.  Needless to say I can't really take my eyes off of her before she is into something she shouldn't be!

look mommy...no hands!

no worries, brink will catch you if you fall!!

She has 4 teeth.  Over all she has done well with these pushing through her sweet and tender gums, the last one (her top left) resulted in lots of crying and whining.  Who can blame her though, it has to hurt, they are razor sharp.

She is liking her solids.  apples, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes and carrots are her main meals.  She did not like peas or green beans (i don't blame her I am not a fan myself).  I made squash tuesday night and she gobbled it up last night.  I will probably start mixing and combining different variations for her in the next week or so.   She loves yogurt bites and puffs...can't get enough of them!

Sleep.  Well we are finally sleeping and sleeping good.  I did it, I stuck to my guns, it was hard, it is behind me and I am better for it...we all are actually!  Letting your baby cry it out is not for the faint at heart...I am proof because it took me about 4 tries to really stick to it and not give in. Here is what I typed the first two nights that she was crying (warning-this was typed at 2am while she was crying.. grammar and spelling are not corrected!):

   10.25.12. Back at it again. Why do I keep doing this to myself?  Justin is gone on his golf trip and I am determined to let her CIO and start sleeping through the night. She has been getting up twice every  night to eat. I am just very tired and ready for nightly sound sleep.  

Night 1:She ate at 8:30p and went to sleep after eating. Woke up around 1a crying. Was up and down several times. Rocking on knees. Standing. Etc. but crying the whole time. 2:05a went in to give motrin and put passy in.  She screams louder when I walk out. I give her 5min of hard screaming and go back in to sooth but No.Picking.Up. I lay her down, put passy in and rub her belly. Starts to relax and I walk out..not going back in, it makes it worse. Stands back up and crying. 2:28a and she is laying down and has put passy in and is playing with it and starting to relax. Hard to sleep and when I know she wants me and is crying so hard. Praying for God to be her comfort and rest. She is sitting up but not crying-rubbing in her lovey. 2:30a laying down and seems to be almost asleep, I can see her rubbing lovey and cant tell is passy is in or not. She sat back up and played with passy before laying down and going to sleep at 3:15a.  The crying was off and on from hard to just whining.   She slept and woke up again at 4:50am.  cried and was up and down for an hour and was back to sleep by 6am.   

Night two much better than the first. I put her in her bed around 9:30pm after feeding her(both sides) wanting to get her good and full. She woke up at 3:15a and cried for 15 minutes before she laid herself back down.  Was back to sleep by 3:40a.  Woke up at 5am and cried really hard for 15minutes. she kept putting lovey in her mouth and pulling it out.  She tried to lay down a few times and would sit up and scream.  I got up and gave her some motrin hoping to help if her teeth were hurting.  She slept until 8:30am!  Yahoo which meant that I got to sleep in too...because Collier didn't wake up until almost 7:45!  

It is hard because when your baby is crying for even just 5 minutes it seems like hours..so when it was hours the first night it felt like the entire night!  The next few nights she would get up and fussy 10-15 minutes before laying back down and going back to sleep.  I think that the following Tuesday night was her first all night sleep.  She still has a night here or there that she wakes up and does a little fussing.  But for the most part she is sleeping all night and doing so good.  So the good news is that now that she is all learned up on sleeping...she really likes to sleep and has even slept as late as 8:30am a few times.  I usually have to wake her up in the mornings to get fed and dressed before heading to work.  Depending on her afternoon/evening nap, if she goes to bed early, I try and wake her up around 9:30 or 10pm to feed her one last time before I go to bed so that she easily gets through the night.  It just feels good to get a solid nights sleep, or at least not be up feeding and changing diapers multiple times through the night.

One other note to make.  I have been putting Kenley in sleep sac's for the past month or so, at the advice of my SIL (Thanks Eve!) and I love these things.  I don't think that they have any impact on her sleep but I am so glad to have them and use them since she can't have a blanket to cover her and it is cold now...they are awesome to keep her nice and cozy through the night.  I don't worry about her toesy's getting cold!  I never used the sac's with Collier but really should have...I love them!  Thanks Emory for sharing with us!!