Sleep!

Last night Emma pretty much slept from 6:30-4:45. She did wake up briefly around 2:30, but put herself back to sleep before I even went in to her room to help her calm down.

This just proves that Emma really CAN sleep through the night, she had just gotten into some bad sleep habits after her ear infection/teething/travel/cold/flu that has been happening the last three months.

Tonight Chris isn't even going to wear earplugs (he's worn some the last several nights so that her crying as she learned to put herself back to sleep wouldn't keep him up all night).

And I've decided that 10 hours of sleep for a 9 month old is pretty good, and I am happy to go in around 4:30-5 and change her diaper and feed her (for now at least).

9 months

I'm a few days late, but this week has been crazy! Emma turned 9 months last week (the 16th) and is growing so much! This past month she's really become more talkative, figuring out her "g" sound and often saying ga-ga. It's fun to have her talk more, not so fun when she's screaming. She's become more attached to her pacifier, she's close to cutting some teeth (I can feel them but not see them yet) and her pacifier must just help her. 

9 month stats:

Emma weighs 18 lbs 9 oz (50th percentile)

Emma is 27 inches tall (I think it was around 40th percentile)

At her 9 month check up this week she talked to her doctor quite a bit, showed her how she likes to stand (as long as someone holds her) and showed off how she *finally* holds her own bottle when she eats! She cried as they pricked her finger to collect a blood sample (she's not anemic... although since she still drinks lots of formula I wouldn't have suspected that she was) and again when they gave her a shot at the end. She was really excited when we were talking about all the new foods to introduce to her now, but she didn't like when Dr B and I talked about her poor sleep habits. 

Tuesday night we started some sleep training, under the guidance of the pediatrician. For about 3 months now Emma has been waking up around 11, 2, and 4:30. At first she would be okay if we just gave her a pacifier, but she's gotten to the point where she wouldn't go back to sleep without food. Luckily, she puts herself to sleep GREAT at bedtime, so we didn't have that lesson to learn right now (Dr B said that was a huge bonus for us!). 

Tuesday night was pretty rough. She woke up at 11:30, and finally was asleep around 12:30; then she woke up again at 2:15 and that time didn't go back to bed til I fed her at 4:00. Wednesday she took two FANTASTIC naps, and Wednesday night went much better! She completely skipped waking up at 11! She woke up at 1:40 but didn't go back to sleep until 3:30... probably only because by that point I was ready to go back to sleep so I fed her. Again, Thursday brought fantastic naps! And Thursday night... she woke up at 2, cried on and off for about 10 minutes and was sound asleep by 2:15. At 5 she woke up again, but quickly went back to bed (because again, I fed her...) and we both got some more good sleep. 

I sort of "broke the rules" of the method the doctor gave us since I fed her, but I feel like she has made some GREAT improvements. If I can get her to completely skip the 2:00 wake up now I would be a happy camper! I'm excited at the thought of getting more than 2-3 hours of sleep at a time again!

This week Emma also started taking baths in the big bath tub, not her baby bath tub. I don't have any pictures, but will have to get the ones that Chris took on his phone the other day.  She LOVES the extra space and splashing in the tub! We're excited to find her some fun bath toys soon, since she seems to really love the couple of rubber ducks that she already has!

And now... since you read all that you get some pictures!

Emma sometimes plays in her exersaucer so I can shower. This particular day she was crying when I got out because she couldn't get the cupboard to open very far. She was pretty sad, but it made me chuckle a little.

This little missy loves to play with the balls that came with her Dinosaur Popper toy! 

This month she started getting up on her knees a little, at least when she plays with her Dino.

Nothin like reading a good book! I'm sure Freight Train is great upside down too!

Just lookin at the camera!

My little valentine!

Not the greatest picture, but she's showing you her teeth! She still only has TWO teeth, although there seem to be two more that are close to breaking through!

File folder games

Some day down the road I'll be glad that I have these 16 File Folder Games ready for Emma. There are some simple match the patterns, some counting, a "match the upper case letter to the lower case", some tic-tac-toe, and some match to the outline. There is even a "match this Book of Mormon character to his story".  Most are churchy, others are holiday themed! 

My next project gets to be her quiet book!