Holidays

Christmas has come and gone, way too fast as always. We enjoyed 5 days back in Illinois that we packed in with lots of visits with family and friends. We stayed at Kyle's parents on Thursday night and did their Christmas on Christmas Eve. We then headed down to my parents on Christmas morning and had lunch with my Grandma and friend Joe while we waited for my mom to get home from work. Christmas night was filled with present opening and Reese playing with cousins Aidan and Aubrey. We then had my moms side of Christmas on Sunday, and Mekenna (Kyle's niece) 4th birthday party on Monday afternoon. WHEW...we were busy little bees. It made it go so fast, and on Tuesday as I was driving to work, I felt as though I needed one more day of vacation to relax :) Reese opened lots of presents while mom and dad indulged in lots of good food and drinks. It was a great weekend had by all.

Monday night began the process of sleep training....the dreaded words. I hate to say this, but Reese has been sleeping in her vibrating bouncy seat next to my bed since birth. I know, I know, not a good habit, and one that has made sleep training that much harder. But, we all know that the first baby is a little spoiled, and I was doing anything to get a little sleep myself. :)

So, Monday night after we gave her her last bottle, we laid in her in her crib, instead of rocking her into a deep sleep. And the screaming began....for 45 minutes. Every 10 min we went in there to assure her we were not leaving her, but we did not pick her up. After an hour she passed out. She woke up every 4 hours that night...but we did not give in and kept her in her crib.

Tuesday and Wednesday Kyle stayed home from work and kept the sleep training going with her naps during the day. Each time, it got easier and easier. As of last night, I gave her her bottle, laid her down, and she rolls over to sleep. AHHHH, sleep training has been successful thus far. She is only waking once during the middle of the night to eat, and goes right back down in her crib afterwards, I cannot complain. I know this should have been done months ago, but it is hard to get over that first hump of hearing her scream for an hour. I hope this continues and she keeps it up.

This weekend we have friends up visiting from Southern Illinois for the New Year. They have a baby girl, Phoebe, who is 5 weeks younger than Reese. It is so neat watching them inspect each other. We are also having another couple over tonight that has a baby 6 weeks younger than Reese. It will be fun to get all 3 of them together!! Looks like our days of staying up late and going out to the bars for New Years are over :) (atleast for a couple years!)

All Nighter

Reese pulled her first all nighter, and by that I mean SLEEPING all night :) I'm not sure if it is going to become a habit, or if she was just extremely tired from this busy weekend. I put her to bed at 8 pm last night, and awoke for work this morning at 5:30 am only to realize that I did not wake up and feed her last night. I had one of those moments where I was like "Am I dreaming?" or "Did I get up to feed her and I was just so tired I forgot?" But no, she was not fed during the night, and it was amazing :)

With a busy weekend, she did great. She had so many new things to look at, a schedule that was off, and was passed around quite a bit. Reese is a creature of habit and does not do the greatest with a different schedule or being away from home, but she powered through and did great at the Montgomery Christmas yesterday. She got a new toy to play with and enjoyed opening her first Christmas present! She even took a nice long nap in Aunt Krista's arms. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, her or Krista ;)

We are looking forward to a short week at work and then heading back to Illinois again this weekend for Christmas celebrations. I am praying for a nice, smooth weekend with Reese since we will be away from home for 5 days. We will have three Christmas' and a birthday party this weekend. Tis the season!

Goodbye

We head back to IL this weekend to say goodbye to my grandfather who passed away on Monday. He will be greatly missed by all of us, but we know he is in a better place. He lived a great long life of 94 years and left us all with some great memories. My favorite being that every Christmas when I was little, he would get out his wagon and hook up his draft horses and give the grandkids a ride around his farm in the snow :) It's memories like those that will last a lifetime. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we say goodbye to a wonderful man this weekend.

Winter Wonderland

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Madison. We had our first blizzard of the year yesterday/last night. The winds are whipping today, blowing snow everywhere...so much it is hard to see the neighbor's house across the street. Our plans to take Reese to see Santa this weekend have been delayed, but will be accomplished next weekend I hope!

This past week flew by for me, as Kyle came down with a cold and I was being a single parent for the week. He came down with a runny nose, body aches, and sore throat on Monday. Since the first sign of symptoms, Reese and I have avoided him, pretty much until yesterday when he began feeling better. He is on the mend, but the cold is still lingering.

I finished up my Christmas shopping on Friday night and have begun the task of wrapping. I spent a few hours yesterday and have a couple more things to wrap and then it is complete! Christmas is fast approaching!!

I received some sad news from my mother this past Thursday. Her father (my Grandpa), who is 94, is not doing so well. He has been in the nursing home for a few months and Hospice has been called in. If you could send a few prayers our way, we would greatly appreciate it.

Time to Eat!

Last week we had Reese's 4 mo appt. Here are her stats:

Weight: 15 lbs (74%)
Height: 25.5" (86%)
Head Circumference: 40.9 cm (43%)

So she is a healthy little girl. When the nurse came in to give her shots at the end of the appt, she said "6 mo shots for this little one?" haha. Nope, 4 mo old! She is not "fat" by any means, just longer girl who looks older than 4 mo old!!

The dr. also said we could start trying rice cereal when I felt like she was ready. So, yesterday we gave it a go, and she loved it! I started out with only a couple bites in the afternoon, and she sucked those down in no time. It was so funny to watch her eat off of a spoon! Then before bed we did a little more, and she gulped that down as well. So, I guess she was ready. She then slept 8 straight hours last night...yahooo!! That was the best sleep I have had in months!!! Not sure if it was related to the rice cereal, or if she has a cold and was wiped out, but I'll take it either way :)

She is a little rolling machine now. When I was making her cereal yesterday in the kitchen, I went back in the living room only to find her on her stomach (I laid her on her back before I walked out of the room). She also has been doing a great job in her exersaucer. She loves to stare at all the toys around her.

I'm hoping to take her to see Santa this next weekend at a local library. I looked online and found out that to take her to the mall, it is $20!!!!! What a rip off. So, I had some suggestions from friends on places to go, and that is what we will do either some night this week or on Saturday.