Well I'm back! Until I get our pictures from Christmas, I wanted to write an update on Gracie. She hasn't had much of a spotlight on our blog! She is now 7 months old and 20 lbs and just such a fun girl! She is so smiley and gets so excited sometimes that the only thing she can do with herself is stiffen her whole body and shove a fist into her mouth. She is just an alert, social little girl. She loves her older brother and he is so sweet to her. She's always happy if Cole is around (as long as he's not whacking her on accident with whatever is in his hands at the time). And she is starting to crawl around now too. Just army crawling, but she's getting around! These two give me lots of laughs throughout the day!
Right now we're trying to help Gracie sleep a little better, and that's not causing happy faces... Because of all of the moving around we've been doing until now, her sleep habits haven't been a priority. But, waking up every 2-3 hours in the night and taking 15-30 minute naps isn't quite cutting it anymore! I'm trying something that I've never known anyone to do, I've just read it in a book. It's from "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers". Basically this is our plan: Twice a day I have Gracie play in her crib anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes so that she associates her crib as a comfortable place. I take her out before she starts crying. We're starting with her naps first, then working on her night time awakenings. I used to either nurse her to sleep or bounce her to sleep. Now, I take her in, read a story, and put her in her crib. If she cries, then I hold her. I don't bounce her or anything, I'm just there for support and to let her learn to calm herself. Once she is calm (which may take up to 20 minutes) then I set her in her crib. Right now she'll cry then too so I pick her back up, and do it again. If it takes longer than 30 minutes then my plan is to take her out of the room for a few minutes, and then start again. Today it took 20 minutes for her to fall asleep for her first nap (with picking her up three times), then 10 the next time (picking her up twice). Basically the idea is to teach her to calm herself so that she will fall asleep on her own, and in her crib, and not be afraid to do so. Anyway, I'll keep an update on how she's doing! So far, she's doing great with it and I'm loving doing it this way. Just thought I'd write about that in case it interested anyone, since it's a little different :)
She is just our little chunk of joy!
3 comments:
she is so cute! I hope that everything is going great with your family! you can definitely see a resemblance between Cole and Gracie.
Gracie is so cute!! I'm glad that we got to see you guys for awhile at Christmas time! That retainer pablum you are feeding her is really working. The Snuggie exceeded all of my expectations, and just to let you know they were quite high in the first place. It's become a permanent part of my daily wardrobe, how else could I be cozy warm and type this at the same time. GENIUS absolutely GENIUS.
What a doll she is! We sure miss you guys and hope you had a great Christmas!
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