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!)