Caught on tape!

Finally!

Audrey's New Discovery

You might not find this as amusing as Mike and I did however we tought we'd share it anyway. This is Audrey eating her afternoon cereal which hasn't been anything special up until a few days ago when she's realized how to use her tongue! She's much more enthusastic about it now!

Operation: Cry Out Update

Hi all. Just thought I'd give a little update regarding Audrey's sleeping, or lack thereof. Actually I’m happy to report (knock on wood) that she is doing very well at night. We started the "cry out" method about two weeks ago and surprisingly it went better than we had anticipated it would. If you are a mother (or father) you know how hard it is to hear your child cry and not be able to comfort them however we knew this was something that had to be done in order for her to learn to self soothe. The first night she didn't even cry, just went right to sleep. Of course we were shocked and thought there was no way it was going to be this easy. The next night she proved us right however still not as long as we expected. She cried for 38 minutes before finally falling asleep …we were preparing ourselves for hours of crying! The next night was 16 minutes and from then on it has varied anywhere from 30 seconds to no more than 45 minutes of crying and then she's out for at least 4 - 7 hours before getting up to eat. She usually only gets up once for a feeding however there are times she wakes up at 5am thinking it's time to start our day. For a while I was getting up to feed her and trying to get her to go back down but it wasn't working. That made for really long days! Now I just let her lay there and eventually after talking to herself (she never really cries) for while she puts herself back to sleep until 6 or 7am (Yes, still early but manageable). Now, her naps are a totally different story. If I can get her to take a nap, (that's the challenge) it usually only lasts 30 minutes. On some rare occasions I've gotten an hour or 90 minutes out of her but on average she's just a short catnaper. My hope is that the older she gets the better she'll get at napping ...fingers crossed!
In addition to all that she's also starting to sit up by herself, although for only a few seconds at a time before she tumbles over to her side. She has also rolled over a couple of times however I can't seem to get her to do it on a regular basis ...almost as if she looks at me and says, "No thanks, I'm just fine where I'm at.” She’s also started eating cereal once a day which I think she’s finally starting to enjoy now that she’s really gotten the hang of how a spoon works. She doesn’t really need it though …I think she’s pushing 18lbs however we’ll found out for sure in a couple of weeks when she goes for her 6 month check up. Stay tuned!

Baptisim

On Sunday Audrey marked her fifth month of life and to celebrate we had her baptised at our family Luthern church. She was in such a great mood, thank the Lord, so she didn't seem to mind when the Pastor repeatedly dumped water on her head. Krista and Randy did us the honor of accepting the role of Godparents and there to help us celebrate were her Great-Aunt Joyce and Great-Uncle Ron (my Godparents), Aunt Sara and Uncle Dave, Great Grandma Weil, Grandma and Grandpa Nelson and of coarse her best friend Sarah.

Now at 5 months Audrey has rolled over (just once though) and has discovered new vocals ranging at all volumes (Heather - remember Sam's possesed voice, now Audrey has it). She laughs (and giggles) all the time now and what I love the most is when she buries her head into my neck when she gets shy with new people. We're still struggling with napping and just tonight we started with the "self-soothing" processes. This is only day one of the process that could take us up to two months to accomplish however it will help us all sleep better in the long run once she is able to put herself to sleep. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Check out those cheeks!

We caught it! A smile on camera! These are very rare to come by so we thought we'd share.

Audrey is approaching 5 months this weekend. We're still struggling with consistent napping and bedtime has recently become a battle now too however we're just taking things one day at a time. Perhaps she's teething however we've yet to see any evidence of one, well aside from the constant drooling that is!