You give me fever...

Counting our blessings, this is the first time she's had a reaction to shots. She seemed great yesterday afternoon and slept wonderfully all night. She took an extremely long morning nap though (almost 3 hours!) and was burning up. So I took her temp with the digital ear thingy and it beeped like crazy...I knew before I looked at the numbers that she had a fever. I gave her Tylenol and called the doctor just to be on the safe side. She seemed to be in fairly good spirits, but I could tell she wasn't feeling well. She only a took a half hour nap later in the afternoon, refused her dinner (I gotta say, the beef with beef gravy didn't smell all that appetizing) and conked out by 7:30. I felt so bad for her. Now she's fast asleep and I'm downing the martinis Chris made for me. It's been a trying day.

6 months...we made it!

I can't believe it's been half a year already. Our lives have completely changed (for the better!) What did we do before her? I honestly do not know, or care. This time last year I was newly pregnant (still in my 1st trimester) and I spent the whole summer sleeping, eating, reading, and researching baby stuff. I had so much free and alone time on my hands. I remember my assistant principal had sent me a note, "Enjoy your summer!! This time next year you'll be chasing a 6 month old!" How true. Audrey is doing so much these days. When I was home on maternity leave it was quite boring. I had no idea how to entertain a newborn. But now she's into everything!! She grabs for anything that you give her, anything that is placed in front of her. She loves her exersaucer, her jumperoo, the TV, the dogs, her many, many toys. But most of all she loves her mom and dad :) I love when she reaches for our faces and just lets us kiss all over her. It's the best :)

Some long overdue pictures of our sweet girl:


She loves the pool!






Adorably bashful!


Our first trip to Kings Dominion


She loves playing with her basket of toys...


...but we make her smile the most!

6 month stats:
weight- 15.9 lbs
length- 24 in
head- 42 cm (16.5 in)

Almost afraid to post this...

in fear that I'll jinx myself! Audrey slept beautifully last night! I didn't have to do a single check...not even when I put her down for the night. I heard her wake a couple times during the night but she fell right back asleep! She slept from 8:00-5:30, then went back to bed from about 5:30-8:30. Unreal. Her late morning nap was great as well. Quitting the paci was easier the first night than I thought...hopefully this continues!

Somewhere Dr. Ferber is shaking his head...

So, all in all, Ferberizing has been great...pretty much the best thing we've done for Audrey as far as sleep goes. She's sleeping in her own crib all night, AND she naps in her crib as well (yaaay!). However, I failed to see the importance of eliminating the pacifier at the same time. I felt like it would be too much all at once for her. Well, it has really become her only sleep association. Herein lies the problem...when she wakes at night and loses the paci, it upsets her. And I'm lying there realizing that all I have to do is go put it back in. And it worked well becuase I'd only have to do it once and she was back asleep...until maye an hour or two later. So I wasn't really Ferberizing...I mean, why let her cry for 3, 5, 10 minutes when I KNOW the only thing she needs is the paci? Now, I do do not mind getting up a few times to replace the paci at all. However, this is not helping her get back to sleep on her own as we had originally intended with starting this whole process.

The goal of Ferber is to eliminate their sleep associations so that when they wake at night (as we all do) their environment has not changed and they can more easily fall back to sleep. I love the analogy Ferber has in his book. If you fell asleep every night with a nice comfy pillow and then at some point during the night someone came in and stole it, you'd be like..."WTF, where's my pillow?" and you'd totally wake up trying to find and get all riled up, unable to fall back asleep very easily. However, if you had to start the night falling asleep without your pillow, yeah it would suck the first few nights...you'd be all uncomfortable, toss and turn, complain, etc. But eventually you'd fall sleep and get used to it. Basically we want the condition to which Audrey falls asleep to be the same as when she wakes up so that there are no surprises, nothing has changed.

So nights 4 & 5 were ok as far as her initially going to sleep. Very little (1-2 minutes) or no crying. But she woke up a couple times for the paci each night and that's when I realized I wasn't really Ferberizing anymore. So I made the decision to start all over again, but this time eliminate the paci. Yikes. I decided to start with this morning's nap. Get it over with! I put her down while she was all happy and smiley. She cried for 3 minutes. I left and she cried for exactly 5 minutes, but this time it was on and off. Right at 5 minutes she fell asleep (hello!! this is a total repeat of her first few days of Ferber!) I'm glad this mornings nap went so well, but I'm very anxious to see what tonight holds. I expect her to cry for 8 minutes at bedtime, but what about when she wakes at night? I'm hoping there's no more than 8 minutes of crying as well.

As I've said, I do love Ferber's method...it works...but it only works as well as you can follow the plan. If you want your baby to associate falling asleep with a paci, then by all means, keep the paci. But Audrey can't reinsert by herself yet. And honestly, why not break the paci habit now? Wish us luck tonight!!

Another Mickey Mouse video

This one was way too cute to resist posting:

Someone take this girl to Disney World!!

Audrey LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She can be totally distracted by something else but when she hears Mickey's voice at the start of the show her head snaps toward the TV and she gets the biggest grin on her face...it's hilarious! It never fails, you can put her in front of the TV and she'll watch it with a pretty serious expression. But when Mickey walks over the hill at the start of the show she smiles and gets all shy. Usually she leans towards the TV as if she's super interested. Here's one of the many videos I've taken of her latest trick:



One day I had her in my lap while on the computer. She was starting to get super fussy so I You-Tubed the MMCH opening and sure enough she immediately stopped crying and started smiling! I heart Mickey.

First Father's Day

Chris is an amazing father. From day one he's been fantastic...changing diapers, getting up at all hours, giving me a break when I need it, working his ass off in this tough economy, cooking dinner, washing endless dishes & bottles...there's nothing he can't or won't do. I've always known how lucky I was to have him as my husband. I hope she grows to appreciate having him as a dad. He's so good for her...I hope that one day she finds someone just like him to marry. And I hope that if we have a son he's exactly like his dad!


Posing for her Father's Day picture


So happy to be with Dad! Look at that grin!!

Night 2 of Ferber went exactly like the first night. We were supposed to wait 5, 10, then 12 minutes, but I felt like we should try 3, 5, and 10 again. I guess I thought that night 1 was a fluke. Sure enough she cried through the 3 and 5 minute wait times. After 5 minutes was up and we were about to check on her she fell fast asleep...and slept until about 4:30. I got her up for the day but she got tired again about an hour later and took a long nap. This evening was rough again...she kept rubbing her ear and was super fussy. Also, she's had a runny/gunky eye all day. Tonight we'll definitely do the 5, 10, 12 minute wait times. It's going to be so hard if she makes it to 10 minutes. Hopefully I'll have good news to post tomorrow!

My Gerber baby is a Ferber baby

Last night was our first night putting Audrey back in her crib and trying Ferber. My 2 main goals are to help her get herself back to sleep when she wakes at night (no paci, no feeding) and to of course sleep in her crib all night. I'm keeping a sleep training journal, but the here's the gist of it:

She went into her crib around 8:45 and cried through the 3 minute wait time. We went in and checked on her, then left. She proceeded to cry through the 5 minute wait time. Just as we were going in to check on her, she stopped and was fast asleep. She slept until about 4:20. According to Ferber, we had to get her up for the day at that time. I was completely fine with that! She went down for a nap in her crib at around 5:40. It only took about 30 seconds of whimpering before she fell fast asleep until 9:00. The rest of the day we didn't bother with Ferber's methods because we were in and out of the car and we spent the rest of the day at Grandma and Grandpa's house in the pool.

She was quite fussy this evening so of course I was dreading putting her in her crib. Total repeat of last night...cried through the 3 and 5 minute wait times. Stopped at exactly the end of 5 minutes. I'm hoping that she'll stay asleep again, but not counting on it. I'll update tomorrow about how it goes...

She cracks me up!

She's been doing this for about a month now and it never ceases to make me laugh. She looks like a mean old lady.

Thanks, Uncle Scott!

My little brother made this beautiful table for Audrey in his 7th grade Tech Ed class. Pretty much the sweetest gift ever. I especially love the hearts carved on each side. Our special summer project will be painting it, I can't wait!

I said I'd never do it...

But my favorite part of the day is when I lay Audrey in our bed and snuggle with her until we both fall asleep. I just love listening to her breathe and make her sweet little sounds. I love watching her as she turns towards me to get more comfortable and how she smiles at me from behind her pacifier. She only stays there for a few hours, and then it's back to the bouncer so that Chris and I can get some really good sleep without worrying about rolling over on her :)

New things!

Two new happenings this month!

Audrey will not stop rolling over...it's ridiculous! She does not want to be on her back. It's way too cute how she rolls over and just wants to play on her belly:



When she's not playing on her belly she's sitting up and playing!! That's right, Miss Audrey can sit all by herself. I've been so excited for this moment. Her balance is amazing, she tilts in all directions and straightens back up. She even turns her body to look at what's going on behind her. Amazing, this girl is!!


Audrey with her pal Janine Giraffalo


"I'm going to eat your face!"


"You taste terrible!"



So far all of her milestones have been exciting and I've looked forward to them so much. But I think I'm going to cry the day she actually becomes mobile. Where is the time going?!

Growing up fast!

It seems like Audrey changes overnight. All of a sudden she can just do different things. A few weeks ago we put up the doorway jumper. She liked it ok, would give a few bounces here and there. A few days later she's bouncing and laughing and having a great old time. Recently she's discovered the musical buttons and has been hitting them like crazy.





She is really starting to get better at sitting up. A few days ago I had her in the bouncer as I was eating dinner. All of a sudden she sits straight up and starts smiling at the dogs. She would not lay back down! She'd even lean back, then pull herself upright again. It was pretty funny. It's getting harder and harder to hold her in the bathtub when she does this!

She is such a great eater! Opens her mouth wide when she sees the spoon coming. Sometimes she'll grab ahold of it and put it to her mouth.

She's pretty awesome in every way imaginable.