The Sweet Sound of Success

Well, we've done it! Sophia successfully goes to sleep on her own w/o crying! It only took a week (and a lot of alcohol for Mama), but we've done it! Woohoooo! It's so wonderful! When we put her down now, she makes her little pterodactyl noises for a couple of minutes and then there's nothing but the sweet sound of success -- silence!

We had a busy weekend this past weekend. J.P. and Wendy Stephens of Lumos Studio Photograhy came over to the house to do family pictures. I hope they were able to get some good shots. I'll post some as soon as I get them. They came over at 4 pm, which is normally Sophia's afternoon naptime during the week. I didn't think it would be a problem though because she usually sleeps in until close to 10 on Saturdays. Wouldn't you know it... she woke her cute little tush up at 8:30 am Saturday morning just like it was a weekday. So she went down for her nap at 10:30 and slept until 1:00 pm, making her ready for her afternoon nap at 4. We put her down at 3:30 and let her sleep until a little after 4. She was good for the first hour they were there, but The Dragon started showing its head during the second hour. After they left, I tried to put her down for a late nap, but she wasn't having it. She slept for about an hour and woke up when her Uncle Chad and Aunt Brandi got there. Then yesterday, she woke up early (around 9am) and was quite fussy. She took a 4 hour morning nap and then another 2 hour afternoon nap, and when she was awake, she just wanted to be held. I guess Saturday was just a little too much for her. Oh well.

Milestones

Sophia is 3 months old now and she has successfully hit some milestones!

She's recognizes me and Anthony and gives us a big smile when she sees us:She's reaching for her toys:And she's lifting that noggin when you put her on her tummy:

Last night, we were sitting on the floor in the living room playing (refer to the last two pictures) and she started to roll over on her side! I'm going to keep putting her on her tummy this week and see if she manages to do it. You can see the determination in her face in the above picture, so I'm sure it's not going to be long until she's rolling over. She also loves to practice standing. I'll have to try and snap a few pictures of that this week to share.

Oh, and an update on the sleeping. We have successfully broken the habit of me holding her until she falls asleep! Wooohooo!! I now hold her until she gets heavy-eyed, then I put her in her crib. I usually have to stand there for a little while, holding the pacifier in her mouth, but usually after about 15 - 20 minutes, she falls asleep. I know it's not perfect yet, but it's progress and I'll take whatever I can get! Like I've said before, I must be doing SOMETHING right -- my 3 month old sleeps 13 hours straight every night! ;)

Halloween

I forgot to post pictures from Halloween!! Here's my little Chili Pepper:

We didn't actually do anything for Halloween, but I did dress her up as a chili pepper for about 10 minutes and snapped some pictures! She was a really good sport about it (even though you can tell from her eyes that she's not thrilled about the whole thing -- could have been because I was laughing hysterically the whole time I was taking the pictures...). I don't know if you can really tell in this picture, but she's had a bit of a growth spurt since I bought this costume and her little legs were all scrunched up! Hahahaha!

So I changed her outfit into this:

and she was much happier! :)

Happy Halloween!!

But I WANT to hold her until she falls asleep...

Anthony and I swore, before we had Sophia, that we were going to follow others' advice and create good sleeping habits for Sophia from the start. And we did.... for a couple of months. We were so good about putting her to bed when she was still awake so that she'd self-soothe and learn to put herself to sleep. We never let her sleep in the bed with us (except for the occasional nap with Daddy) -- in fact, she's slept in her crib in her own room since the very first night we were home. So why is it that I found myself holding her the other night until she fell asleep and asking Anthony "When did I start rocking her to sleep?" I don't know when I started doing it (and he couldn't remember either), but somewhere along the line we (probably I) stopped putting her to sleep awake and started rocking her to sleep. Now she won't go to sleep if I don't rock her. During the day, Nanny Brooke can put her in her crib awake at naptime and after a short visit from the pterodactyl, she goes to sleep. If Anthony or I put her to bed at night while she's awake, we get a visit from The Dragon. What have I done?!!? I'm pretty sure I started rocking her to sleep after I went back to work, but I honestly can't pinpoint the exact time. Why, oh why did I do this? I know why -- I miss her. I WANT to hold her until she falls asleep because now that I'm back at work, I only get a few hours a day with her and I miss her. How, oh how do I stop this? Last night we tried to let her cry herself to sleep, but after about 10 minutes, I couldn't take it any more. I think this is something that I'll have to do on a weekend when I don't have to get up at 5:30 a.m. the next morning and be able to function. I mean, I guess it's not THAT bad -- she's still sleeping about 12 hours straight every night -- but she really needs to relearn how to put herself to sleep. Suggestions?