For Crying Out Loud...

Well, we did it...took the plunge....and let our baby girl "cry it out" to get to sleep. After way too many months of getting up every hour 4 or 5 nights a week (because she will ONLY go to sleep nursing), trying every technique I could possibly read about, this broken-hearted Mommy decided it wasn't fair to this family for me to be so sleep deprived (AKA: "CRABBY!!!"). Sooooo, last Friday night I fed her, rocked her, squeezed her and told her I loved her, put her in her crib, turned OFF the baby monitor and proceeded to call our babysitter to distract myself from the screams. And 25 minutes later, she was asleep. Saturday night was 10 minutes. Sunday night was less than a minute. Monday night was 5 minutes. And I haven't gotten out of bed all night long since Thursday.

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I wish I had a bed this comfy...the pillows and blankies and soft bunny. I'd never get out of bed!

If you'd like to make a donation to her future counseling sessions, just shoot me an email :)

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For a note of history, I had originally tried just not letting her nurse to sleep and just rocked her. The screaming those nights was 45 minutes. She had no voice for 2 days; she sounded like one of the muppets when she laughed.

Despite the tragic bedtime, Sadie's doing great. She crawled for only 4 days before pulling up on furniture and getting into everything. She now stands for a good 10 seconds or longer without holding onto anything. We predict she'll be walking by October.

Who gives their drooly kid blueberries??? I guess that would be the same person that shampooed the carpet...

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Sadie lounging.

Since it's been forever since I've sat down to blog, I better get somewhat caught up with a recap: .

June & July:

Sadie and I took a trip to Minnesota to see my cousin, Michelle and her baby, Kylee. Kylee was born Dec. 21 but wasn't due until mid March. So, she and Sadie are only 5 weeks apart in age, but 4 months apart in development. In this picture, Kylee's on the left, then Logan (my friend, Julie's baby) and Sadie's on the right. Kylee and Logan are developmentally the same age. Kylee and Sadie are technically about the same age. BUT, Logan weighed as much as Sadie!

Michelle and I

While the girls were relaxing in Minnesota, the boys were tearin' it up in Alaska. Of course, Daddy had to work so my folks had the boys quite a bit. My mom took them to the little carnival that visits Kenai each year. I love this picture of Carter. He's absolutely screaming with excitement!

Tball rules changed this year, which means Carter got to play even though he was only 4 years old. He seemed to like the first practice or two but quickly got bored with the rest of the season. We'll see what next year brings.

Carter up to bat.

Logan taking off for first.
Grandma Jan came to visit the end of June. As usual, her visit ends all too quickly. But, the kiddos look forward to seeing her every time. They call our spare room "Grandma Jan's room" all year 'round.

Sadie's wondering what kind of freak family she was born into...

Cousins Caitlyn and Madyson also visited this summer. Hard to believe a year ago we visited them in Montana. Madyson was the age Sadie is now...and we were expecting a boy!!! Funny how things have changed in a year.

Of course, a typical picture with all the cousins...not a single kid looking at the camera.

We started off July with a parting of ways with the old washing machine. We opted for the top loading variety for the new one (still high efficiency, though). As you can see, it has a clear lid for your viewing enjoyment. Logan actually chose to watch the washing machine instead of playing the Wii one day. Yikes.

August:

Of course our main news in August is Carter turning 5!!! We had a carnival theme for his birthday, including Logan putting on a magic show with his trusty assistant, Joshua.

Hopefully I won't let myself get this behind again. I'm not making any promises.