Ok, I am a week late with this blog...I'm a horrible mother.  What is worse is I don't even know where her baby book is since the move, oops!  I have had just a tad bit on my plate lately though so I am sure Olivia will forgive me :)

We are finally in our new home!!!!  I cannot even express how happy my little heart is!  We are all loving it so much (blog post to come soon with pics of the new house).  It is really starting to feel like home.  

My little bit is pretty exciting all by herself.  I am pretty sure this is my favorite stage yet!  I know I have said that before, but really she is so perfect right now I can hardly stand it! 

 4 Month Stats

Weight: 14.6 pounds (75th percentile)

Length: 25 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

New tricks: rolling over (belly to back, this kid avoids being on her tummy at all cost haha), falling asleep on her own, and giggling until she loses her breath - my fave :)   

She has also started being very clingy to mommy, which I can't say that I mind too much.  If someone is holding her that she doesn't know very well she will poke her little lip out and search for me.  I know it may sound cruel, but that face is kinda funny.

 

Monthly Milestones

Baby girl finally got her nursery in her new house!

 

Pretty pieces her honorary Aunt Savannah refinished for her

I am not finished with it yet, but thought I would go ahead and show the work in progress.  I am really liking how it is turning out though!

First Family Trip to see the Tide Roll!

Who is the idiot that takes a 4 month old to a ball game?? Oh that's me!  She actually did great.  We sat in "The Zone" so we got to go inside and stuff our faces with cupcakes and nachos cool off when we needed.  She was not so interested in the game, but did not fuss one bit.  She fell asleep on the way back to the car in her carrier and slept most of the way home.  We did not really watch any of the game, but I would consider this first attempt a success! 

Breakfast with Cousins

We had Aunt Ashley, Allie Kate, Ava Grace and even Nana over to eat homemade biscuits, bacon and eggs our first week in our new house.  I am so happy that we live closer now and these sweet girls are going to get to grow up together.  My sister is my best friend and I hope these little girls will be too!  I love my sisters babies almost as much as mine so it just warms my heart to have them all here together! 

First Fall

Finally getting some fall like weather and getting to wear some of her cute fall outfits :) 

Her favorite new thing is sticking her tongue out and spitting everywhere...not my favorite trick yet haha

To my sweet Olivia Jane

I cannot believe how big you are getting!  It seems like every day you are doing something new and I can't keep up.  You truly are a mommy's girl right now.  I love our time together and I will cherish it forever.  It doesn't take much to make you laugh these days and it always brings a smile to my face.  We really are best friends and I hope that we always are.  I love you to the moon and back my beautiful little angel :)

Sleep training.  

Two words I have dreaded since the day my little angel was born.  My little one has been a pretty good sleeper from the beginning, sleeping between 4 and 6 hour stretches at night.  Lately, she has decided she needs to sleep with me and eat every 2 hours and be rocked to sleep and the minute I lay her down wake up crying.  This equals no sleep for baby or mommy.  I decided to give cry it out a shot.  I had heard horror stories of this method and I was really nervous, but I also know that we gotta get some sleep around here. 

Night 1-

I gave her a bath, read her a story, fed her and then laid her down.  She fussed for about 30 minutes and then went to sleep. She slept from 7:30 to 4:30 am- whoo hoo!!!  She didn't even cry when she woke up.  I heard her sucking on her hand in the monitor and went and fed her and she went back to sleep until 7:30am.  She took 3 maybe 45 minute naps in her crib the next day with no crying to go to sleep. 

Night 2-

We do our bedtime routine and she is soooo sleepy that I put her down early, 7:00.  She went straight to sleep, no fussing!  She slept until 2:30 am, ate and went right back to sleep until 7:30am. That day she went down for her naps again with no crying at all.

So as you can imagine I am feeling pretty confident at this point.  My child is a genius.  

Night 3-

Bedtime routine, like normal, she is again very sleepy and she falls asleep while eating.  I try to wake her up while putting her in bed, but she is seriously out.  30 minutes later the shit hits the fan.  She is screaming like someone is beating her in there.  I immediately think something is horribly wrong.  I run to her bed and as soon as she sees my face she starts smiling and laughing.  Part of me is relieved that there is nothing wrong, but now what??  I patted her tummy and told her night night and walked out of the room.  She again begins to peel the paint off the walls with her screams.  My husband tries to start a conversation about some house project, but all I can focus on are the shrieks coming from her room.  It lasted for 15 minutes.  I know that is not a long time, but it was absolutely awful.  In those 15 minutes I thought about going to get her 15 thousand times.  I pretty much felt like not only was I a bad mom, but a pretty horrible human being as well.  I had to keep reminding myself that I was doing this for her own good and she has been doing really, really well with this.  She did sleep until 2:30am, woke to eat and then back down until 6:30am.  She did great with naps during the day again, no crying!

Night 4-

Bath, book, booby...she falls asleep again while eating and sleeps like a little lamb....for about 30 minutes.  More screaming her poor little head off.  That lasted for 15 minutes.  Again, I feel like scum, no, lower than scum, the maggots that feed on pond scum ( I'll give ya 10 bucks if you can name the movie that came from).  She slept until 3am, ate and went back to sleep until 6:30am.  She took three hour long naps with no fussing the next day.  I don't get it... she goes down perfect for nap time, but loses her mind at night?? Something just ain't right.

Night 5-

I am smarter than my 4 month old, right?  I think maybe the reason she is having a hard time at night is because she is falling asleep while eating and then wakes up alone in a dark room and freaks out. So I think I can fix this.  She goes down great for naps so if I lay her down awake at night things should be just peachy.  I change up the bedtime routine tonight feeding her and then bath and storytime and lay her down. I was totally expecting her to fall straight asleep and not cry at all.  She did do better than the nights before.  There was no screaming banshie hiding in her room.  It took her about 40 minutes to go to sleep, only 10 of which spent fussing, but it was her sleepy fuss at least.  She slept until 3 am, ate and then went back to sleep until 7:45.  Again, great naps during the day.  High hopes for night 6!

Night 6-
We invested in a night light thinking maybe she would sleep better with a light in there, plus it sure does make it easier for me when I am changing her diaper in the middle of the night - or early morning as it has been these days.  My little nugget is pretty smart.  She starts whining when I walk in her room to put her down for the night.  She knows what's up by this point.  I lay her down and rub her tummy and sing "twinkle twinkle" although she is not entertained by this.  She was fussing a little and her eyes were almost closed before I even left the room.  She fussed for another 10 minutes and went to sleep.  Now, I say fuss instead of cry because she is truly not crying, more like whiny talking.  She slept until 4:30am, ate and went back to sleep until 7:30.  Napped like a champ the next day :)

Night 7-
I am beginning to think that fussing for 10 minutes or so is as good as it's gonna get.  I really don't like the idea of her going to sleep every night unhappy, but she is sleeping REALLY well once she goes to sleep so something has to be working.  We do bedtime routine and she starts whining again when we walk in her room and while I sing to her.  I walk out preparing myself for the worst.  I look at the clock to start the timer and suddenly I realize she isn't fussing anymore.  I grab the monitor and look at her and she is laying there looking around and then she closes her sweet little eyes and falls asleep....SUCCESS!!!!!  I kept waiting for her to wake up crying, but I didn't hear a peep from her until 4am!

I have been torn on the cry it out subject and I know it is not for everyone.  We have honestly had a very easy go at it and it is working for us.  Now, since that first week she may fuss a couple of minutes when I first lay her down at night, no longer than 5 minutes, but I believe she is resting so much better than before.  Before starting this journey she had only slept 5 hour stretches during the night.  She now sleeps at least 8, most of the time 10!  She is taking better naps during the day too, up to 3 hours.  She is a very wiggly little sleeper and I think she wakes herself up while flailing around in her bed, but now she knows how to put herself back to sleep.  She also wakes up happier.  She used to cry every time she woke up.  She would stop as soon as she saw me, but now she wakes up happy and I hear her talking and grunting to herself.  I had to document this so I can look back with baby #2 when I am crying harder than the baby and know that it is worth it, for everybody :) 

Sweet sleeping big girl!  Can't help but miss rocking this angel to sleep every night... Pretty sure I will get to again though, we should have teething coming up just around the corner ;)