Avery 10 Months

Wow! I can't believe she's 10 months! I always felt like her turning a year old was an eternity away, but now that she's 10 months, it hit me that it's only 2 months away!! And I also realized that I have done zero to prepare for her first birthday. Luckily I'm planning on doing something low-key. Around Dallas it seems people go all out and stop just short of having Katy Perry as the live entertainment. Not here. It will be something simple with just family and close friends.

Here are pictures from her monthly photo shoot -

This month has been pretty crazy. I didn't want to admit this in her 9 month post, but things were pretty easy back then. She couldn't crawl and had grown out of her colic (or whatever she had) so life was a breeze. I could put her on her quilt and she would quietly play with her toys (not going anywhere) while I washed dishes or made bottles or whatever.

...Then she started crawling. I guess that was her "present" to me, because the first time she crawled was on my birthday. She has not slowed down since, and my life has drastically changed. I've heard this forever, but now I know the meaning of "you have to watch her every second." I turn my head to look at something and turn it back and she's somehow doing something she's not supposed to.

Case in point - our dog has this annoying habit where he drops a couple pieces of food on the carpet. Anyway I saw the piece of food earlier and meant to pick it up but didn't. Well I put Avery on the floor and went to get her bottle. When I came back, she was in the spot where the food was. She was chewing something with a strange look on her face. Yeah. Gross.

I am OCD clean and I have been going insane since she started crawling. It doesn't help that we have a horse-size dog that I swear loses half his body weight in hair in the summer. The vacuum and I have had daily meetings.

She has had a lot of "firsts" this month. Of course crawling -

Her favorite place to crawl is all the way to the end of the hall where her daddy is working in the office. It's quite the hike for such a little girl, but she loves visiting him!

If you're interested, I posted a couple of crawling videos on her YouTube channel. There's nothing in them that's going to make them go viral or anything, but I thought it would be fun for out-of-town family to get to see her crawl. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/samrandrews

Then Rustin's grandma, Joy, came for a visit. This is the first time she has met any of her great-grandparents on Rustin's side.

And she celebrated her first 4th of July!

Let's see - she weighs about 18 pounds. She still is not a huge fan of solids, but we keep trying. She likes finger foods better than me feeding her anything.

She FINALLY (at 9.5 months) started taking longer naps. The Healthy Sleep Habits book said they should start napping "by the clock" with two naps at around 9am and 1pm that last at least an hour at about 5 months. Ha! I guess she's just a late bloomer, but it did eventually happen.

And no she still does not have any signs of teeth!

I seriously love her so much. I wonder what I did with my life before she came along!

Avery 9 Months

Avery turned 9 months on June 7. She had her check up with the doctor on the 11th and she weighed 17 pounds, 13.5oz and was 27.25 inches long.

Here are pictures from her 9 month photo shoot. It's getting harder and harder to take these because she is now aware of her bow and sticker and tries to pull them both off. I know it will only get more difficult once she becomes mobile!

She has started making this face that seems like she's thinking "what are you doing??" -

Here is what has been going on...

Bottles: She drinks four 6oz bottles a day, but she drinks them in little bits. This used to stress me out because I read books that warned against "snacking" but that is just how she eats. Even when she wakes up from sleeping 11 hours at night she only eats 3oz. The doctor told me that was good for her though because of her reflux. Both Rustin and I like to eat little bits throughout the day rather than large meals, so she may just take after us!

Solids: She has a love/hate relationship with solids. Sometimes she gets super happy while eating and eats a ton, other days (most days) I can barely get her to eat anything and she fusses the whole time. But she does love her puffs! And to her Daddy's dismay, I gave her a taste of the pineapple sherbet I was eating and she loved it! She kept opening her mouth and fussing for me to give her more.

Milestones: Nope - still no teeth and she's not crawling either. I would worry, but I've finally realized that babies are so different and do everything at a different pace. I feel like she's a few months behind when they say she "should" do things, so I'm sure crawling is no different. She gets up on her hands and knees and wiggles back and forth so it's just a matter of time. But she has learned how to sit up by herself in her crib.

Nicknames: A-Shae and LP. Her dad made both of them up. LP stands for Little Princess. I thought that was cute :)

Sleep: Her naps are still short. She just loves the 45 minute nap. Every now and then she sleeps longer. Most babies her age are down to two naps, but she still takes three naps - I guess because they're so short. Sometimes she doesn't want to take her third one even though she's really tired. I used to take her walking during that time, but now it's too hot so we run errands or just go driving and she always passes out in the car.
She's been sleeping through the night for several months now. She usually goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up at 6:30am. I love our time before I put her down to sleep. I call it our "cuddle time." I hold her facing me and she talks to me and plays with my hair, nose, shirt or anything else she can grab.

Her favorite toy by far is her paci. We have the wubbanub kind with an animal attached to it. Sometimes when I look at her at night, she's not sucking on the paci but just holding and rubbing the animal part.

She loves animals, especially my parents' cat Willie. Whenever she sees him she squeals really loud. If he walks by, she tries to grab him. She likes our dog, Baloo, too but only sometimes. She will see him all day and not pay attention, but then she'll randomly get really excited about him. Here are some pics of her and her furry friends -

When she gets a toy in her hands, she gets excited and moves her arms up and down. She also has been making a funny noise like she's trying to whistle. She really likes it if you try to make the noise too.

I'll close with a few more pictures of her -

Confessions Part 1

Sometimes I feel like every other mom but me has it all together. It seems they have perfect babies who never cry and sleep all the time. What has been my saving grace is my ONE friend who had a baby as difficult as Avery. Hearing her stories make me think that maybe I'm not such a bad parent.

Anyway I thought I would write this post in case there's any other not-so-perfect moms out there in hopes it might make them feel better. So here goes...

- Avery cries. Not too long ago a friend said to me that she can't remember the last time her baby cried. Avery cries several times a day. Not for long periods anymore (the first few months it was non stop), but it happens. I don't think a day has passed since she came home from the hospital that she hasn't cried.

- For the first 5 months of her life I had to bounce her on an exercise ball until she fell asleep, then put her (swaddled) into her swing which was already turned on full blast. Usually she would wake up and the process would need to be repeated several times. If she didn't sleep in her swing, she slept next to me. And no, it did not create a bad habit. Now she sleeps unswaddled in her crib every night and for every nap just fine.

 - Her naps are usually only 45 minutes. This used to drive me insane. I read every book and Internet article I could get my hands on. I tried everything they suggested. Nothing worked. To go along with that - she is not on a perfect schedule. I tried it. I'm not anti-Babywise, it just didn't work for us. Avery just does not have the temperament to be on an exact schedule. I started enjoying life a lot more when I stopped obsessing about it. 

- I was a hermit until the last few months because she cried at the top of her lungs any time I took her somewhere. I just got the guts to take her to the church nursery last weekend...at 8 months old. People who don't have difficult babies probably thought I was anal. But I just knew that she would cry and wouldn't stop until I got her home and put her down to sleep.

- I'm not a health nut. Yes,  I try to eat healthy but my diet consists of more than just organic fruits and vegetables. Growing up I remember eating "sugary" cereals like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Fruit Loops and loving them. We didn't go out to eat or eat fast food much - my mom mostly cooked- but to this day she still cooks veggies with grease. But neither my brother nor I have been obese or had health problems. I like to eat donuts on Saturday mornings every now and then and nothing tastes better on a hot day than an ice cold Coke. Having Avery has made me want to eat healthier and of course I'm not feeding her McDonald's or anything, but will she at some point eat a Happy Meal? More than likely. Will we go out occasionally on Saturday mornings for donuts? Absolutely.
If God chooses to let me live a long life but I go at 87 instead of 88 because of my meal choices, so be it. Enjoying my food was worth it.

- I feed her formula. I talked in a previous post about why she stopped nursing so I won't go into it. But I feel like that's the #1 thing moms judge other moms on.

- I failed at making my own baby food. All my friends talked about how easy it was, but it was stressing me out. Also (this may sound weird if you don't know me) but I have this disease where my esophagus is really small and I choke easily, and I think Avery has the same disease. I couldn't get the food pureed enough and she started choking. I also don't buy the most expensive organic baby food. It's all Gerber in this house.

- She has a pacifier. She probably will for a while.

- I hold her when she wants to be held. Some of the books say it creates a bad habit. All I know is that there will come a day when she won't want me to hold her anymore. She's only little for such a short time. I already miss when she would take naps with me.

- I watch TV. I don't sit in front of it all day (who has time?) but I have it on while I'm playing with Avery. I guess since we're home by ourselves, the noise makes me feel connected to the rest of the world. I haven't let her watch TV - as in shows for her like Baby Einstein. I'm trying not to until 2 years (not sure that will happen) but after that, yes she will watch some TV. When I was little, I had all Disney movies memorized. I don't have ADD and I know how to interact with others.

- If we're in a public place and she's not happy - anything goes. She can chew on whatever I can find in my purse if the toys aren't fun anymore. I have also been known to feed her tons of puffs. But one serving is like 80 pieces so that's ok right??

- I am usually wearing no makeup, workout clothes, and hair in a ponytail. I don't have the energy to get dressed up to just be at home or go to the grocery store. Showers usually happen at the end of the day when she goes to bed.

- I nap when Avery naps. I know I should be cleaning or doing laundry or some Pinterest project. I don't. I sleep. 

That's all I can think of for now. I'm not sure there will be other confessions but just in case, I wanted to leave it open. Hopefully this encouraged another "not-so-perfect" mom out there.

Daylight Savings

Not sure if anyone else cares, but if there's other new moms like me who weren't sure how to handle daylight savings time and baby's sleep schedule, I thought I'd share...

As you know I am a huge fan of Dr. Weissbluth, the author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I subscribe to his blog (http://weissbluthmethod.wordpress.com/) and there is tons of helpful info on there. I also like reading the comments section and seeing what other parents have to say. Anyway he posted this about daylight savings time:

If your child’s bedtime is 6pm, then after we change our clocks, still put your baby to sleep at 6pm. We eat, play, rest, and bathe around the same clock times and these social cues help tell the child when bedtime is coming.
Sweet Dreams!
Marc

This helped me because I wasn't sure if I should put her to bed at 8 since she usually goes down at 7. But I guess I will keep it 7 (which will be like 6 to her). I guess we'll see how tonight goes!

Avery 6 Months

She did it! Avery turned half a year old on March 7!

Here are a few more further away that show her chunky thighs :)

 I feel like I have gotten to really enjoy her this last month. I love her to death, but the first 4 months were *really* hard. There wasn't much play time. It was basically just me trying to get her to stop crying.

Here are her "stats" -

Weight - 15 lbs. 7 oz (40%)

Length - 26" (61%)

Food - Maybe I'm too concerned with things, but I decided to not start her on solids until a week before she turned 6 months. I know they say you can start at 4 months, but I read a lot on why it's better to wait until 6. Maybe there's nothing to it, but what does it hurt? I started with rice cereal and she is not a fan. Not sure any of it has made it in her mouth. She purses her lips as tight as she can and makes a face like "gross." I guess I'll just move on to some other foods and hope she likes them better! I plan to make my own baby food so this should be interesting :)
She is also eating formula now. I wanted to nurse her for a year, but at 4 months she just stopped. I even talked with a lactation consultant about it and even she was stumped. It was like she weaned herself but she was too young to wean. I was really depressed about it for a while.
But I am still having a hard time with her eating. She will only eat max 3 oz at a time and then starts fussing. It's like she wants to eat but it hurts her. The pediatrician suggested I try soy formula but she does the same thing. He said she is gaining weight fine, so it may be something that's just more of an inconvience for me (yes - washing tons of bottles!).
Here is a picture of her eating rice cereal for the first time -

Clothes - 9 months fit her perfectly so I guess she'll be moving to 12 months soon. Luckily my friend Hillary gave me a HUGE box of 12-18 month clothes, so we're set!

Sleeping - She has been sleeping in her crib for over a week!! Yes, she was in her swing the whole time before that. I know some people may judge me for that, and some of the books say it's a bad habit, but all I know is it helped her sleep which helped me sleep. And when she was ready, the transition to her crib was super easy. I don't see how her sleeping in her swing hurt anything. I have also learned to not compare babies and their sleep schedules. They are all so different. My parents were telling me that when I was little they didn't even have to tell me to take a nap - I just did it. But with Colby it was a huge fight. Our sleep habits are still like that - I still love naps and Colby can stay up all hours. In fact, he works the night shift and loves it.
Lately she has been sleeping well through the night. She sleeps about 12 hours and either wakes up once or doesn't wake up at all. Her naps are still only about 45 minutes, but I've tried everything and I can't change it. I realized the only thing I could control is her bedtime, so she just goes to bed early. But since she's sleeping so long at night, I think she is getting enough sleep in a 24 hour period.

People - she has gotten very wary of people she doesn't know, especially men. When I was younger I used to be scared of men. If my Uncle Bruce or my dad's friends looked at me, I'd start crying. I think it's because I was sensitive, and Avery is very sensitive too. I think men are just loud and big.  When we were in Wichita Falls, Uncle Colby talked to her and she started screaming crying (well who wouldn't? haha). She also did it to my dad a couple of times but then she warmed up to him. She wouldn't cry but she wouldn't smile at him either. She just gave him her poker face. She has also started crying when cashiers at the grocery store and my neighbor talked to her.

She is finally big enough to sort of enjoy her exersaucer -

I am so thankful God has allowed me to be her mommy and that I can stay home with her!

Avery 5 Months

So I had put cut up black leaf bags in Avery's window (ghetto, I know) to block the light and make it easier for her to nap. In my defense, no one could see them unless they opened the curtains. But that made the lighting really bad for her 5 month pictures (yes, I'm OCD) so I decided to take the bags down (they were falling anyway and weren't helping her nap any longer) and take a few more pictures. Plus, she wouldn't smile at all that day and she is nothing but smiles today so I thought I could catch one on camera! (She's still close enough to 5 months right??)

She has been nothing but a Daddy's girl lately. When she sees Rustin she gets really excited and wiggles her body, smiles really big, and lets out a squeal. It is hilarious!

Last night Rustin's parents babysat Avery and we went to Fort Worth and met up with Catherine, Patrick, Sarah, and Ryan. It was a roommate reunion - plus husbands! We had tons of fun catching up, and I'm mad at myself I didn't get a picture! It's crazy how much things have changed. We were all single when living together and now at dinner all we could talk about was our babies. They both had hotel rooms down there and were going to hang out longer, but Rustin and I had an hour drive back to Allen so we had to leave early. Maybe next time we'll be brave enough to leave Avery overnight!

Also, I'm learning to NEVER complain in my blog. I was getting frustrated Avery was waking up every day at 6:30 when my friends' babies were sleeping until 7 or 8. Well now she's waking up every day at 5:40! But I'm NOT complaining (or it's going to be 4!) haha!

Visitors

Avery has been entertaining a lot of guests recently. The other day one of my friends, Jennifer, came over with her little boy, Michael. He is exactly three months older than Avery. It's so crazy how fast they change. Michael could sit up and was actually playing with the toys. Avery still lays on her back and just chews anything that comes close to her mouth. I think she had fun with her new friend though, and it was nice for me to get to visit with another mom! I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of them together though. Oh well, we will next time I can convince Jenn to make the drive over here!

My grandma from Florida came into town and my parents drove down here to pick her up and then came by our house. This was the first time she met Avery.

Then they had to bring my grandma back a few days later. Since she was flying out of Love Field, she stayed the night with us and I took her to the airport in the morning. My grandma from Wichita Falls also came down with them and Avery got a pic with both of her great grandmas.

My grandma got to read Avery her bedtime story... (I secretly love this book too. I don't mind reading it to her every night!)

The other day Rustin and I decided to get a few pictures with Avery and her Valentine's outfit her aunt Andrea gave her. It's a 6 month size and I hadn't put her in it yet because I assumed it would be too big, but it's too small! Apparently she's already in 9 month clothes!

And she turned 5 months old!

A few random things that have been going on:

Rustin and I have gone to a couple of concerts...for free. Andrea got us tickets to an 80's cover band (The Molly Ringwalds) at the House of Blues. Then our friends Joel and Hillary had tickets to Mat Kearney at the Majestic Theater and they couldn't make it so gave us their tickets! We had a blast at both and are grateful Rustin's parents could babysit!

Avery is falling into more of a routine. Before I never knew what time she would wake up in the morning. Sometimes it was after 9, sometimes it was 6. Well now she wakes up at 6:30 on the dot every day. Her naps are still a little irregular but they are getting better too. I wish I wouldn't have stressed out so much and just let her settle into a schedule herself, which she seems to be doing. She also has an earlier bedtime - about 7pm - which Rustin and I have really enjoyed. Before she wouldn't go to bed until around 11pm and Rustin would already be asleep so we didn't ever get to hang out at night. Now we have our nights back and can watch our reality shows I suck him into :) 

My mom is coming next week for a visit, then I am going to Wichita Falls the week after that. The first weekend in March I am going to Salado with friends for Jana's 30th birthday. It will be my first night away from Avery so I'm nervous about that but also looking forward to hanging out with everyone!

Tired of Comparing

I am exhausted. Not from Avery’s sleep schedule. That’s what I thought it was and what I blamed it on, but for the most part she’s sleeping through the night. No, she’s still not taking good naps, but I’m usually getting about 8 hours a night. (Don’t worry this isn’t another post about her sleeping :) No, I realized I am exhausted from trying to measure up. All my life I’ve been a perfectionist. I got my name on the board one time in elementary because I misplaced my book, and I thought my world was ending. I don’t think my parents had to ever really discipline me. All it took was a look and I was back on track. I’ve always wanted to please people. In school I had to get good grades. Never in my life did I get a C on a report card. I’m not saying this to say that I’m smart. There were classes that were very hard for me, but the thing with school is I could control it. If the class was hard, I studied harder. I learned to control things in my life to make them as perfect as possible.

I knew I needed to work on this before I had a kid. I read a book a few summers ago called Death by Suburb. It was really good and made me realize I don’t want to get sucked into the competition in suburbia of who has the nicest house and whose kid is doing (insert whatever milestone) first. I didn’t want to put that pressure on her. I didn’t want to make her feel like she had to perform for me to love her.  

Then I had her. My perfectionism and control issues came out full force. There was only one problem this time – I was dealing with a person. I could read tons of books. I could talk to tons of people. I could keep detailed logs of her sleeping and eating habits. I could try out different solutions from “experts” to get her to fit the schedule I wanted her to. But she’s just a baby. No matter what I did, I couldn’t control her. I kept thinking if I just kept researching I would find the “cure” for her lack of napping and schedule. Confession – I even called Dr. Weissbluth’s practice (the author of Healthy Sleep Habits) in Chicago to set up a sleep consultation over the phone. Then I found out it was $800. Instead of thinking, ok that’s crazy, Avery’s fine. I thought – where can I get $800? What can I sell on eBay?

I think what pushed me over the edge was talking to a well-meaning friend at a party. Her baby was born about a week before Avery. Her baby had been on a schedule since about 7 weeks. Woke up every day at 7:30, naps twice for two hours at the same exact times each day, eats at the same exact time. For some reason this devastated me. I felt like I had failed as a mother. This mom obviously did something right that I completely missed. I felt like I failed Avery. This mom followed Babywise. While she was talking about it, the judgmental voice in my head kept saying “maybe if you had followed Babywise, your baby would be on a schedule too.” Yes, I read Babywise (wasn’t a huge fan). But then I had a colicky baby. A schedule was the last thing on my mind. My sole goal in life for 3 months became to help her stop crying. I knew this mom didn’t have a colicky baby so there was no way for her to understand what I had gone through.

That “breakdown” (and Rustin) helped me wake up and realize why I was doing all of this. I kept telling myself I was doing it for Avery. I wanted her to get enough sleep so she would be healthy and well rested. But for the most part now (after the colic) she is a pretty happy baby. So is it really all for her or is it for me to show that I’m the perfect mother and have the perfect baby? I sadly realized it’s the latter.

I know this is something that I will continually need to work on, but I’m glad I realized my fault now, not when she’s on some sports team and I’m the crazy mom yelling in the stands as if it’s the Superbowl. I don’t want Avery to feel like she needs to perform or be perfect to be worthy of love. My mission as a mother is to point her to Christ. He doesn’t want our good deeds or performance. And I don’t want her to grow up thinking she has to be perfect for Him to love her because that’s what she has to do for her mom. I want to emulate His love and accept her as she is (I’m not talking about discipline here). I just pray that the Lord will continue to guide me as I take on the hardest but greatest job of my life. I guess if she had a perfect mother, she wouldn’t have a need for a Savior.

Avery 4 Months

Avery turned 4 months on January 7. She just had her check up yesterday though. She now weighs 13 pounds! I believe it...and so does my bicep! I need to start weight training or something because it's getting hard to hold her for very long, and I know it's only going to get worse!

Here are a few pictures of her lately. First is one of her in her bumbo chair. She looks like she's about to say something very important.

I've been reading the Llama Llama books to her and my mom got her her own Llama. She loves him, even though he's as big as her!

Then we did her 4 month photo shoot -

 She can sort of sit up now so I took one of those too -

Well I can't post without saying something about her sleeping schedule (or lack thereof). I feel like I always have to add this disclaimer - this may be boring if you aren't going through this right now, but I wanted to write about it to maybe help someone else. I have loved my friends telling me what their baby was doing at this time and what worked for them.

When she basically wasn't sleeping at all and had colic bad I kept comforting myself with the fact that it's supposed to end at 3 months. Also, according to Happiest Baby on the Block, they were supposed to be done with the "4th trimester" and not need the things to recreate the womb and calm them like swaddling and swinging. So I guess I just had this expectation that 3 months would hit and she magically wouldn't cry anymore and start sleeping great. Well nothing changed. Then I was reading more stuff and it seemed that it sometimes takes babies to 4 months. So I thought ok, I can make it to 4 months. Well 4 months came and still no change, so I was pretty discouraged.

I was very concerned with her sleep because it directly affected me! I've always needed a lot of sleep. I used to say that sort of tongue-in-cheek knowing it was probably just an excuse for me being lazy, but I really think it's true. Some kids sleep more than others, so why would that not follow you into adulthood? When I started kindergarten, I was still taking a nap. My mom was worried about how I'd do. I guess I got through it, but even through my career, I wanted a nap. When I was teaching I would leave early and take work home so I could do it later, but I needed a nap first! Left to my own schedule in the summers, I would sleep 10-11 hours every night. That's just my natural rhythm. So to be sleep deprived for months was really hard for me, and I was desperate for a solution!

The book I LOVE (and I think have memorized now) - Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child - said that at 4 months you can start letting them cry it out. I was against cry it out. I didn't want to do it. But I tried EVERYTHING else. In fact, I think I researched too much. There are so many different theories out there, and I was driving myself crazy reading the pros and cons of everything. I finally decided to pick just ONE method and stick to it, and I chose that book. I feel like the author is very middle of the road, and he's a doctor. A few of the other sleep books are written by people with no medical background or education on sleep disorders, and I'm wary of those. I just knew that Avery wasn't sleeping and neither was I, so for her own good something had to be done. The book said something about how you're not making her cry, you're allowing her to cry. I know as she's growing up there will be many times like this. When she gets older and wants to eat candy for breakfast or something, I may have to allow her to cry, but my decision is for her own good.

There were several sleep problems I needed to tackle. First, she was still sleeping swaddled in her swing. Also her bedtime was WAY too late (10-12pm), and her naps were only 20 minutes. I decided to keep everything the same (swing, swaddle, etc) and work on her bedtime first. With the guidance and encouragement of a couple of friends (Sarah and April) I decided to put her to bed when I knew she was tired and needed to sleep and allow her to cry if needed. I fed her right before putting her down, made sure she had a clean diaper with diaper cream on, and was burped. I knew all of her needs were met and all she needed was sleep. Letting her cry was the hardest thing I've ever done. The first 2 nights she cried on/off for an hour. I wanted to go get her so bad. But after that she only cried about 20 mins and the last few nights she hasn't cried hardly at all. I hesitate to write anything like that because I feel like when I do, the next night she regresses, but for now she's doing ok with bedtime.

My next task is to get her out of the swing and to the crib. I've just started it today and I'm nervous, but I need to do it. Next I want to work on her naps, but the book says they may not be regular until 5 months. But I have reduced the amount of time I was soothing her. I was holding her and bouncing on an exercise ball (she wouldn't even let me rock her) forever. As she got heavier, I physically couldn't do it anymore. Now I bounce her for just a few minutes (less than 5), sing to her and put her down drowsy but awake. The first few times she cried for about 15-20 minutes. Now she may cry right when I put her down, but then stops about 5 seconds later and goes to sleep. She doesn't stay asleep as long as I'd like, but at least I'm not killing myself getting her down anymore.

I've kept a log of her sleep/eat times for 2.5 months now to look for patterns. Her "schedule" was all over the place, so there aren't many patterns yet, but it is helpful to go back and see if she's improving. I'm glad that I have it and will be able to refer to it when I have another little one.

I could go on and on but I'll stop there. If I could go back I wouldn't have researched so much. There are so many people with different opinions, especially if you look on the discussion boards on babycenter, etc. Then you start trying all these new ideas and it doesn't work because you're not consistent. I would have just read the Healthy Sleep Habits book and stuck with it. Hopefully things will get better and maybe I'll be a pro when it's time for the second baby!

Avery's First Christmas

I'm not sure where to even start with this Christmas. It was wonderful because it's the first one I got to spend with my little girl. I didn't find out I was pregnant with her until early January, so last year at Christmas I was praying so hard for her. Now I am so blessed and happy she is here. But it was also an incredibly sad Christmas because my Grandad passed away on the 20th. I think it would just be too hard to try to write one post and combine such opposing emotions, so for this post I am just going to focus on the good parts of this Christmas and write a separate post about my Grandad later.

Avery started off the holidays with a new trick - the night before we left for Wichita Falls (the 18th) she rolled over for the first time! I thought it might be a fluke so I put her back on her tummy to see if she'd do it again and she did, but she hasn't done it since, so I'm not sure what to make of that. I guess she'll do it again when she's ready.

Avery and I left for Wichita Falls on Dec. 19. I was going to spend the week before Christmas with my family since it was Rustin's parents' turn to get us for Christmas this year. I had a hair appointment scheduled on the 20th to dye my hair back to its natural color, and much to my surprise (and I think everyone else's) I actually went through with it... and even like it! I just wanted a change and since my hair is so dark naturally, I felt like I had noticeable roots two weeks after getting my hair highlighted. Plus, it's expensive! Here is a picture of the new look...

We tried to do a photo shoot of Avery in her "First Christmas" outfit my grandma gave her but it didn't go too well because she wouldn't look at the camera and kept making faces like this...



And this...

Also the outfit was very close to being too small, and to make matters worse (or more funny) she kept grabbing her shirt and lifting it up to reveal her poochy little tummy.

We went over to my grandma's and had Christmas lunch and decided to take a few more pictures of Avery with the family.



After lunch we came home and opened presents. I think Avery got the most! She even got a cute little dress all the way from Virginia from Aunt Holly and Uncle Greg!

My grandma and aunt came by a lot that week to visit with Avery and she liked chatting with them. Here is a picture of her doing what she loves - holding her hands and laughing.

I'll end with an update on Avery's sleep habits (my main concern). She is still doing the same thing - only taking 20 minute naps during the day and not going to sleep until around 10 at night. I've tried everything to get her to nap longer and go to bed earlier and nothing works. I guess the only thing I haven't tried is cry it out. I just don't know if I can do it. Part of me thinks that it would be cruel to let her cry like that, but then the other part of me knows that sometimes as a parent you have to do hard things for the benefit of your child. I want her to have healthy sleep habits and for our whole family to be rested, but how? I think I've driven myself crazy reading all the books and their opposing points of view and still feel just as lost. If any moms have any advice on what they did to sleep train their babies, I would love to hear it. I want to do what is best for her, but I just don't know what that is. But I do know that what I'm doing right now is not working and she's not sleeping enough.