I Heart Pumpkins

I heart pumpkins, I really do, I love love love pumpkins and everything they represent. This past weekend Jeremy and I along with some friends took Reagan to a local pumpkin patch for some good old fall fun:-)) I think I was more excited than anyone. There is just something about fall and pumpkins and bales of hay and cornstalks and pumpkin bread and little babies dressed up in their pumpkin best that just gets my heart racing with excitement. We had a really good time, the weather was really nice, and we got some beautiful pictures of our little pumpkin! Enjoy!!

Happy 10 Months Baby Girl

Oh Reagan Avery, what are you up to these days now that you are 10 months old and only 2 months away from being ONE (GASP!! How is that possible??)
(PS... this is going to be a long one, since we accidently skipped right through 9 months, oops!!)

-Well, where to start, you weigh approximately 17 and some odd pounds, big girl.

-You are still wearing size three diapers.

-You still only have your 2 front teeth. I swear I keep checking for teeth in there, but they have yet to appear!!

-Your eating habits are starting to change. You are not a big fan of any textures, so finger foods are not your favorite. You are a big fan of squash this month, along with lots of yo baby yogurt. I try EVERY day to get you to eat finger foods (pasta spirals, green beans, puffs, cheerios, etc...) You are just not a fan yet. You will sometimes surprise me and eat them, but most of the time you just spit it out:-))

-YOU ARE WALKING, Yep, a few days before you turned 9 months, you decided that crawling was overrated, so you took a step here, as step there, and now, you are walking EVERYWHERE!!

-You went on your first vacation to Estes Park, Colorado in the past month, and had a grand time. You really did great, even on the LONG drive to and fro.

-You are developing the cutest personality. You are very independent in some ways, but still a mommas girl through and through. You play really well all by yourself, but also enjoy being around other babies. You smile ALOT, and laugh, You have started this funny thing where you will smile and shut your eyes at the same time, its the funniest thing I ever did see.

-You are FINALLY sleeping through the night, somewhat inconsistently at times, but at least we know you CAN do it. You were doing so well, and then we went on the trip to CO, and we got a little off schedule. But for the most part, you will sleep from 7:30 till around 4:30 or 5:00. You will cry and I will go and get you and bring you in our room, you will nurse, and then go back to sleep till around 6:30.

-You LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Maggie. Oh how I wish she felt the same. She is getting better, but you just cant seem to get enough of her. You torture her most of the time, climbing all over her, and you like to run over her and chase her around the house with your walker.

-You have starting showing a little bit of a temper when things do not go your way, which is funny, Not sure where that comes from:-)) You also do not like to be laughed at. If you do something and someone laughs, you really act like you get offended, which makes us laugh even more. Sorry baby!!

-When you get excited these days, your WHOLE body shivers with excitement, You can just feel the excitement radiate through your body.

-You smile with your eyes, you can look into your eyes and know what you are thinking without seeing the rest of your facial expression. And speaking of eyes, you have the most beautiful baby blues I have ever seen!!

-This past month you have had a few injuries, a few bloody mouths, bumped heads, etc. I guess that comes with this new found skill of getting around on two feet.

-You HATE to sleep, I swear, you would rather NEVER sleep, which makes mommy tired. You fight me on naps, I have no idea where you get all of your energy. It really amazes me.

-You are still loving your school, and you get to do so many fun things. Now that the weather is getting cooler, you get to play outside at school, which you love.

-Now that you have started walking, we finally broke down and bought you some new shoes. Your daddy picked out your first pair of tennis shoes, a pair of pink and white puma tennis shoes, they are Super cute!!

-You are now in a big girl car seat, and loving it. We decided that it was time to put you in a big girl car seat so you would be more comfortable. You do like it much better, but still are not thrilled to be strapped down or constrained EVER!!

-You bring so much joy to our lives. I cant even remember what life was like before you came around. We love you so much baby girl!! Happy 10 months, we are so blessed to have you in our lives!!

More School Pictures

Just wanted to share some more pictures from Reagan's school. Its so nice to get to see pictures of Reagan while at school. She always looks like she is having the time of her life in the pictures!! She is such a cutie!!

Estes Park, Colorado

We had a wonderful time in Estes Park, CO. Jeremy, Reagan and I along with my parents, my brother and Jeremy's parents spent the week in Estes Park. We had a wonderful time. The weather was amazing, and the scenery was just breathtaking. Reagan did great traveling, she was such a big girl. Here is an overview of our trip in pictures.

Family Portrait...



We saw alot of these, just the most breathtaking views.





Reagan did alot of this and was such a good sport about it!!





Reagan also did alot of this...






And a WHOLE lot of this :-))









She even got to try her hand at this.....




We really had a wonderful time!!! See....

Not ever for a second!!

Not even for a second can I take my eye off this girl since she has started crawling. Seriously, I thought that I was tired before, but Reagan is keeping me on my toes these days!! This is what I found her doing the other day when I turned my head for just a second. She seems to know when I am not looking, and then she goes right for the things that I tell her not to. There is really no need for toys anymore, she does not play with them anyway. All Reagan wants to do is get into, chew on, pull at, and tear up all the things that she is not supposed to. And when I look at her and tell her no, she will stop for a second, think about what I told her, and then give a great big smile, and go right back to doing the thing that I told her not to do in the first place. My, we are in SO much trouble!!

Here is a little video of Reagan playing in stuff that she shouldn't be, but having a ball.

Pretty

I just think Reagan looks so pretty in her new dress that her YaYa made her. Its just precious, and so is she. Just wanted to share some pictures of our girl!!

 

Sleep Training

Did you ever stop and look at a situation that you were in and think to yourself "Now how in the world did we get here?" "How in the world did things get this bad?" And then you think back over the past say, 8 months, and you can vaguely,through sleep deprived eyes,see the path that led you to your current non-sleeping situation.

I think this all started with unrealistic expectations of how and when a baby "should be" sleeping through the night. I read many books that claimed that babies could be sleeping through the night at 6 weeks of age. Ha!!! Well, maybe that works for some, but for our happy little slightly sleep deprived family, it didn't.

I also think Reagan having unresolved reflux issues can also be factored in to the no sleep equation. We initially had plans that Reagan would sleep in her own crib from the very beginning, and that she would be taught how to sleep on her own. We had plans to have Reagan sleeping through the night at at least 8 weeks of age, maybe 12 weeks if we were part of the "unfortunate" ones!! And then, as we were on our way to sleeping bliss, Reagan started the period of her existance that we try to forget!! Poor baby,screaming and crying and just down right uncomfortable. During this time of torture, we did ANYTHING to get Reagan to be comfortable, which included rocking her to sleep, letting her sleep in her swing (which was a blessing at the time), etc....

So, while we were getting Reagan's reflux issues under control, we were at the same time, unknowningly, creating a monster!! A monster with an angels face, that soon start refusing to sleep in her crib, and only sleeping in her swing with her very very tired mommy or daddy asleep next to her on the not so comfortable couch!!

Ok, so the swing worked for some time, and even though the couch was uncomfortable, at least it was somewhere to rest you head when you were weary!! Then the dreaded day came when low and behold, out of nowhere, Reagan got too big for the swing! I was distraught with worry of how in the world we were ever going to get ANY sleep, EVER AGAIN!!!

So, we started putting Reagan in her crib again, where she would sleep for a while, and then wake up and refuse to go back to sleep in her crib. So what is a parent to do? Well, I will tell you what you do when you are so tired you can't see straight, and desperate. You do the one thing the you swore up and down that you would NEVER EVER do, you let baby come and sleep right smack inbetween momma and dadda in their bed. And, oh how baby loved being all snuggled up with momma and dadda!! She would sleep great, Jeremy would sleep great, but me , not so much, but 2 out of 3 was not so bad, right?

So anyway, soon, Reagan started wanting to nurse constantly during the night, I think that she would just roll over and her food supply would be right there, waiting. So, then she would fuss and fuss until I would (weak one that I am) give in and feed her just to make her happy so she would sleep so we could sleep.

So, this is where we found ourselves, doing things that we swore we would never do, and letting Reagan do things that are not good for anyone in our little household, even the poor dog!!

So, this is where we started, desperate for something to change but scared to try, not knowing the outcome. I think I was more scared than anything that it would not work and then we would be stuck forever with no sleep.

So, this week, we got to a point where we just could not handle it anymore.
I read the book, Sleep Easy Solutions. Pretty much, the basis of the book is to teach your baby how to self soothe. So this week, we prayed about it and decided that it was time to try something, anything!! The book outlined exactly what to do to get your baby to sleep better at night, and take better naps. So, we followed the steps, exactly as they were laid out for us. And this is how it went:

Night 1:
I laid Reagan down to sleep on the first night awake (I usually rocked her to sleep, put her in her bed ever so gingerly, and tip toed out of the room so not to wake her up). She had no idea what I was doing and immediately started to cry, and cry, and scream. She proceded to throw the fit of all fits. She cried as if someone has cut both of her arms off with a saw. Seriously, it was just pitiful. But as she was crying, I realized that she has no idea how to soothe herself to sleep. And it was all my fault,I was the one to blame. The book says to check on the baby in intervals, first in 5 min, then 10, then every 15 minutes until the baby falls asleep. It took Reagan 46 minutes to finally give up and fall asleep, 46 horrible heart wrenching minutes. Reagan slept till about 3 oclock that morning, and then woke up crying. She again cried and cried, this time for about 25 minutes before falling back asleep. She slept the rest of the night until the morning.

Night 2:
I laid Reagan down in her crib. I was ready for another horrible night. I decided to give Reagan a little blanket that my mom made her, a little lovie for her to hold on to. Once I laid her down, Reagn cried for 6 mintutes, and the fell asleep. 6 minutes, thats it!! I could not believe it. She again awoke around 3 am, cried for about 5 minutes, and then put herself back to sleep.

Night 3:
I laid Reagan down in her crib. She gave me a big smile, rolled over, and not another peep was heard from her. She went right to sleep without any fussing or anything. She did wake up a few times during the night, cried for a minute or two, and then put herself back to sleep.

So, this is where we are now. Things are looking up for us right now, and I am so so thankful. Hopefully we can continue this road that we are on, the road to a better nights sleep. It is needed for all of us, Me, Jeremy, Reagan, and also poor Maggie!!

Keep your fingers crossed, and your prayers lifted high:-))