My Little Inchworm

I snapped some random shots of Abbey the other day while she was practicing her crawling. She can now "inchworm" herself (think: slide her knees in towards her arms while sticking her butt up in the air and then sliding arms out) to get around. They aren't very exciting pictures, but I thought her outfit was too adorable NOT to post.

Abigail was then all smiles when I put her in her exersaucer afterwards.

Our Anniversary

Yesturday, Mike and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary.

Who would have ever imagined that we'd go from this at 17 years old...

...to this at 22 years old...

...to this only four short years later?

Life has changed drastically over the past 9 years and it only continues to get better with each day that passes. We've been truly blessed in our marriage and are mindful to recount these blessings everyday.

To celebrate the occasion, Mike flexed his hours at work so that he could be home by 1:30 in the afternoon. My MIL then came over to watch Abbey while we went out for dinner and a movie - something we have not done in a very long time.

We ended up seeing Cyrus. We both think John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill are just absolutely hillarious but the movie didn't live up to our expectations. Both actors were just "eh" and the plot line could have been significantly better than it was.

Afterwards, we headed to our favorite Japonese restaurant. We had an amazing dinner and then headed home for the night. It was truly the perfect end to the perfect day.

Here's to many more anniversaries to come!

I...Need...Sleep.

I've got to admit it - I thought for sure that by six months old I'd have a baby who easily sleeps through the night. By this stage, I imagined myself resting my weary head on the pillow each night for at least 7-8 hours straight.

Boy, was I wrong.

Abigail started blissfully sleeping through the night by the time she was 3 months old. She'd sleep from approximately 9 pm each evening until 7 or 8 am, waking only once around 3 am for a bottle. I was thrilled! Little did I know that once she hit the 4 month wakeful period and started teething that things would take a turn for the worst. To compound our sleep issues further, she started rolling both back to front and front to back by the time she was 4.5 months old so she then needed to be weaned from her beloved swaddle at night as well.

When she started waking 4-5 times throughout the night, I originally thought, no big deal - I can handle this for a few weeks until everything goes back to normal. Then, after those next four weeks of sleepless nights, I thought, it's ok. This can't go on much longer. I'm sure she'll cut a tooth soon and we'll be back to sleeping through the night in a matter of days.

Guess what? I was wrong again.

It has now been over two months since Abbey has slept through the night. Heck, it's been almost 2 months since she's slept for 2 consecutive hours at a time during the night. She now wakes up anywhere from 7-15 times per night needing to be rocked back to sleep. Once I put her down, I'm lucky if she remains asleep for the next 45 minutes before waking again.

I'm utterly and hopelessly exhausted. I simply can't keep this up much longer. It would be great if Mike could help, but with him working 13 hour days 7 days a week right now, that's just not happening. I'm hopeful that once things slow down for him at work that I'll be able to catch a break. But really, I'd rather Abbey just start sleeping again. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

With no one to really turn to for help, I decided to purchase a few books from Half.com about helping babies and toddlers to sleep. I've already ruled out the possibility of "crying it out" and the Ferber Method as I simply don't condone any method that involves leaving Abbey to cry. As a result, I've decided on the following books:

The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley

The Baby Whisperer Solves All of Your Problems: Sleeping, Eating, and Behavior by Melinda Blau and Tracy Hogg

On Becoming Baby Wise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam

All of these books got good reviews from other mommies on The Bump boards, so I figured I'd give them a shot. What the heck - I'm desperate.

I just started reading Elizabeth Pantley's book so I've still got a lot more reading ahead of me. I hope someone out there somewhere is able to provide me with some answers before I completely lose it.

Six Months Old!

Where did my baby go?! I CANNOT believe that we are now halfway to Abigail's 1st Birthday. It all seems so surreal.

Here's what Abbey's been up to over the past month:

• She can now sit fully unassisted!
• She will be starting solids next week after her pediatrian appointment and is currently eating anywhere from 25 to 30 ounces of formula per day.
• She can blow bubbles at you when she's excited.
• She's a babbling machine. She loves the sound of her own voice.
• She can now sleep without the use of her sleep positioner in her crib.
• She wears size 0-3 in onsies and shirts and size 3-6 in pants for the length.
• She has recently moved up to size 2 diapers.
• She laughs constantly - especially belly laughs.
• She can now put her own paci back in her mouth which has been a lifesaver in the middle of the night.
• She's scooting! We expect her to start crawling soon.

Abbey was helping mommy pick out a bow/headband before her photoshoot...

What can I say? She's already mommy's little helper.

Discovering the Grass

Mike and I were invited to a graduation party this past weekend for a friend of the family. While we were there, Abigail was starting to get restless so I decided to put her on the grass for the very first time (I had been waiting until she could sit unassited) to see what her reaction would be. As it turns out, she loved it!

She showed her excitment by blowing bubbles at me:





And by laughing at Grandma and Grandpa:

Here are some other pictures from the party that were too cute not to post:

Abbey's New Toy

Over the 4th of July weekend, Mike and I decided to purchase an exersaucer for Abigail. I was really looking for something to keep her in while I'm in the shower and getting dressed everyday. She has long outgrown her bouncer (which used to be my go-to item for this purpose) and even though we have a Jumperoo, the base is so wide that it makes it difficult to haul from one room to the next.

We decided to purchase this one:



So far, it's been great! It's adorable in person and I really like the light-up/singing iguana. All of the sound effects are really cool. I actually like them much better on this than on the Rainforest Jumperoo.

Abbey apparantly loves it as well...

Our July 4th Weekend

This was really our first "family" July 4th holiday and we had such an excellent time. Mike took time off from work starting Wednesday and didn't have to go back until the following Tuesday. Since he's been working pretty insane hours lately, it was so nice for Abbey and me to spend some quality time with him.

We spent the first few days of his vacation doing some work around the house. He finally finished installing the new flooring in the hallway that connects our kitchen to our basement and garage. It looks fantastic (I'll be sure to post some pics of it later)! While he was busy with the flooring, I finally starting working on some of the landscaping around the house. When I say that our landscaping has been tragically neglected, I mean it. We havent' touched it since we moved in last July. While I still have A LOT of work to do in that department, it already looks so much better.

Friday night, we had a bonfire party at our house for all of our friends - fireworks and all. Thankfully, Abigail slept through them all. Louis, on the other hand, was scared out of his mind. Poor guy.

Saturday, we ventured out to the lake house that Mike's family owns for a picnic with his entire family. The weather was gorgeous even though it was VERY hot out.

Luckily, Abbey now loves her Snugli. Everytime I would put her in it previously, she would last about 5 minutes before screaming her head off and attempting to wiggle out of it.

Mike and Lou had a fabulous time playing in the lake. Louis was exhausted after running through the waves all day!

On Sunday, the actual holiday, two of our good friends had a barbeque at their home. It was a great day for relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Abbey didn't make it to the fireworks as she passed out in the car on the way home from the barbeque, but there's always next year!