Best.Day.

Dear Life,

Emberly and I had the.best.day. Yup. It was exactly what we needed - a day at home to just be together and get back into our daily routine and cuddle and play and get laundry done. LOTS and lots of laundry. It is now 9:15pm and every single piece of clothing (minus what we are wearing currently) has been washed, dryed, folded, and put away. Phew!

I decided this morning after waking up with my sweet little pumpkin 5 times last night that we needed to do something about her sleep schedule. Anything. She just won't nap and has these terrible crying fits at night lately. It is painful. For me mostly.

So today was Napping Bootcamp Day 1. She woke up at 8:15, I fed her, we played, she played while I got ready for the day, we played some more. About 10:15 she was sleeeepy again. Rubbing the eyes and fussy and in need of some rest. Soooo... I fed her, changed her diaper, and layed her in the crib. Then I went and dryed my hair so I didn't have to hear the screaming. Oh man it was torture. Well after sputtering and crying for what felt like an eternity (probably about 8 minutes) I went in and consoled her, layed her back down, and she fell asleep! Yippee! She slept a woppin' 15 minutes. When she woke up, I let her babble until she started crying again and let her cry for awhile and we just battled until I gave up and put her in the swing maybe an hour later. She slept for 25 minutes in the swing. Minor napping bootcamp failure - but maybe a step in the right direction.

Afternoon nap went MUCH better. At 1:30 she slept for an hour without any of the scream-o! I cannot even tell you another time that she has slept for an hour in her crib during the day. Seriously. It has never happened. THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING. Plus in that hour I made a pot of soup, folded laundry, stuffed the diapers, responded to some emails, made some phone calls, and even went to the bathroom completely uninterrupted! WOOT!

She was a happy sweet child the rest of the afternoon. Yay naps! I am an advocate.

Tonight we had another bedtime crying fest - but she is now asleep. I would be too after crying that hard and that long (while my mother was holding me, mind you). I found two gray hairs last week. Coincidence? I think not.

Anywho - that is our epic bedtime/naptime battle we are currently fighting with all forces. If you have magical tricks, please feel free to come try them on my child. I will be napping downstairs.

A few other things you may or may not be interested in knowing (my-o-my I am behind in blog-tracking!):

1. E got her first tooth last Sunday! (Feb. 12)

2. E purged the pacifier. They are gonzo forever. She just stopped sucking on it - she would only chew on it, and if we offered it to her when she was upset she went a little ape. SO after offering and regretting it with a "never mind, sorry we offered!" approach... we stopped offering. We're a little slow, but we caught on eventually. I'm pretty positive the transition is harder for me than it is for her. I feel a little bit like I'm learning how to soothe my almost 6 month old for the first time... and I feel completely at a loss when I'm driving and she's throwing a little "I hate the car" tantrum or being super noisy in a not noisy place. Oh well. It had to happen eventually.

3. At her 5 month appointment she was 17 lbs and 7 oz and 26 inches long which is the 90th percentile for both height and weight. Good grower, E! She also handled her shots WAY better this time around... in fact, I think she cried more when Dr. Vetter was trying to look in her ears than she did when she got her shots.

4. A long nap is 30 minutes. But we're working on that! (Read above)

5. Her food samplings include rice cereal, carrots, avocado, banana, sweet potato, and prunes! I've made all of them - except the prunes. Those are just special to help my sweet dumpling be a little more regular. Call me crazy, but feeding her "real food" is pretty fun to me. Like a new hobby. Plus she makes the best faces! :) She pretty much gobbles up everything we feed her. She just gets one little ice-cube size serving each day.

6. Bath time is still a highlight. She gets SO excited when I set her down on the rug in the bathroom and turn the water on. Oh-my-word, so excited.

7. She rolled from her back to her tummy two days ago! Now she has rolled from her tummy to her back... once. And from her back to her tummy... once. But I think we're onto something now - the wiggles are really starting to be noticeable and she is super strong and throws herself all over. Look out world - this girl is gonna be moving soon!

Ok - that's all. I must go to bed now. Tomorrow is Naptime Bootcamp Day 2.

Yours Truly,
Molly

Oh! P.S. E got to ride in the Ergo on my back for the first time last week! We went to Bismarck to help Jordan's parents with a little moving/unpacking fun (which actually was fun... I just love those organizing things - and Jordan just loves a project!). Anywho... I was working on something and we decided to try her on the back instead of the front. Yup... here it is documented in picture form: