7 Months Old!

Kinley -

I think it's safe to say that your 7th month has gone by the fastest so far!  You turned 6 months old in Florida and we've been on the go since we returned home and I can't believe another month has already flown by!

You've tried lots of new foods this month including:  green beans, sweet peas, puffs, yogurt melts, avocado, pears, mac n cheese, and you've even sucked on pizza crust and donuts!  We can always tell when you like something because you open your mouth like a little birdy when you want more.  Green beans are the only thing that you haven't cared for.

We're also finding it a little harder to get you to eat baby food.  You would much rather play with the food on your tray than have us shove a spoon full of puree in your mouth.  You're also working on your pincher grip so you're getting better at feeding yourself finger foods.

I gave you a sippy cup to play with this month & you loved it! I took it out of the package just to see what you would do with it and it went straight to your mouth. I figured that I should wash it & put some water in it since you seemed to like it & the second I took it away you cried, like sobbing, you were so mad at me! Needless to say, you like the sippy cup. Haha.

We weened off of nursing 2 weeks ago so you're getting 5 (6 oz) bottles of formula a day.  I wasn't really ready but the time just seemed right, especially given all of the issues that I had early on.

You still love your jumperoo and jump like crazy when you're in it!  You're getting close to outgrowing your swing and the only time you seem to like it is in the morning if you're still tired from waking up too early.

Speaking of sleep - you're definitely an early bird!  You are usually up between 4:30 & 5:30 for your early morning bottle and then you will usually go back to sleep until 6:15 or 7:00 if we're lucky.  You used to be ready for bed at 8pm sharp, but now we've pushed back your bedtime closer to 8:30 in hopes that you will sleep later.  (For the record, it hasn't helped much).

You're also napping better during the day for Aunt Sue & you seem to prefer one long (2-3 hour) nap in the middle of the day and then a cat nap around 5:00pm to make it through the evening.


You're rolling over a lot better these days and your legs are getting so strong!  You love standing up and holding our hands or the table.  You also prefer to sit up and play with your toys but we still try to get tummy time in when we can.

Your favorite games to play are peekaboo and pattycake and you love when we "get you" and tickle you!  You still love when I sing Twinkle, Twinkle and enjoy lots of books before bedtime. 

You laugh so easily now and are becoming more tolerant of people besides mommy, daddy, Grandma, & Aunt Sue.  You still have a soft spot for mama but you'll let other people hold you as long as one of your "regulars" is around.

There are still no signs of any teeth but we're watching for them!  We're also working on making new sounds like ga, ma, ba, da, etc but you aren't seeming too interested yet.  You like to say what you want, not what we want! :)

You LOVE watching your puppies so I'm pretty convinced that "T" or "Bubba" are going to be your first words because you always want to know where they are.  They're pretty good about letting you "pet" them, too.

As for your stats - you're in 6-9 & 9 month clothes with quite a bit of room and 3-6 month shoes (if you let me put them on you).  You weigh about 18 pounds and we won't get a height check until your 9 month appointment.

I'm sure I'll continue to say this but I think this was harder (on me) than any of your other birthdays because now you're on the upswing to being 1 year old!  Time is sure flying but it gets more fun everyday so bring it on!

We love you, Kinley, peanut, monkey, sissy, KK!

I think you get new nicknames every week :)

Resolving our sleep issues

This post might be super boring (no pictures) and very obvious for some but I wanted to document it for future reference.  And yes I know, we should have done this a lot sooner!

I think we've finally rounded the corner in the sleep department but I haven't posted about it because I didn't want to jinx it! 

After we got back from Sanibel we were going in Kinley's room almost every hour of the night to put her paci back in & a few times that wasn't even helping her go back to sleep.  I finally got so fed up & exhausted that I was ready to try to let her fuss a little more.   Normally I waited a few minutes but wanted to get in there before she actually got really upset.

On April 13 (Friday) I came across a blog & the mom said that they solved their sleep issues using a technique called "progressive waiting."  I read reviews on Amazon about the book that she recommended and bought it for my Kindle that same day because reviews were so positive. 

It's written by Ferber & I know he got a lot of crap for the cry it out method but the book has been updated and doesn't recommend shutting the door and letting the baby cry all night like (I think) it used to.

The idea is that the 1st night you let them cry 3 minutes, then check & comfort (but not pick up), 5 minutes, then check, 10 minutes, then check & if they are still fussing, every 10 minutes after that. Then we repeated the process every time she woke up at night (I think 3 other times that night).

Every day the time that you wait gets progressively longer and the issue should be resolved within 7 days, if not less.

It was tough the first night but not as bad as I had expected!  Like our doctor said, Kinley needed to figure out how to sooth herself to sleep. Darn doctor knew what she was talking about because Kinley was only up ONCE the next night and twice on Sunday.

(BUT the Dr also said don't go in her room at all & there was no way I was following that rule...I'm still a little sensitive to her crying, lol). 

We've been doing ok for about 10 days now but we've had an off night or 2 where she woke up a few times instead of once.  I think we even had 1 night where she didn't wake up until 5:30am and she hadn't done that since before Christmas!

We also had to stop giving her the paci at night because otherwise we weren't going to let her figure out how to sooth herself. That broke my heart & I was in tears before we put her to bed because I felt sooo bad! But she figured it out, thank goodness!

Now we're phasing out the paci & she doesn't really seem to mind. It's a lot sooner than I had anticipated but whatever works! We'll still give it to her during the day if she's fussy though.

Hopefully this sleep pattern continues so we can all be a little less grumpy during the day! :)

Easter 2012

Kinley got a little spoiled by the Easter bunny this year but I guess that's ok since it was her first Easter!

Her basket had some snacks, books, an iPhone toy, and paci's.  She also got a new outfit, PJ's, and a new lifejacket to use on the boat this summer!

Kinley absolutely loves this book because you can feel the soft tails and ears on the pages.  She flaps her arms and kicks her legs everytime I get it out to read.

Ready for summer!

We started our Easter festivities at Grandma Weezie and Papa Ron's house and in the rush to get over there we didn't get any pictures of Kinley with her Easter basket, oops!

Here are the pre egg hunt family pictures:

The cousins - Kinley, Kylie, Rian, Brayden, Maille, Aidan, & Delaney

Chris, Christie, & Maddie

 The O'Connors

 The Tucker Family

 Tucker Family II

Then we prepped for the Easter egg hunt!

And they're off!

Kinley wanted to play with her bag so daddy found eggs.

Like I've said, everything goes to the mouth!

Hi blue eyes!

Aunt Kimmy was excited!

Kinley & Tiki's eggs

Kinley & Buffett's eggs

Always playing with my jewelry.

After we found all of our eggs it was time for the scavenger hunt to find baskets!  All of the kids read clues starting with the youngest.

Kinley went first...

and led us to the shed.  Next Brayden told us to go

to the stop sign.  Aidan sent us...

to the tree and Delaney told us to meet...

at the mailbox.  Rian sent us all the way...

down to the frog by the pond.  Kylie told us to go...

to the pink flowering tree.  And finally Maille sent us in inside...

to the sunroom to find our baskets!

Checking out all the goodies.

More toys and snacks for K!

We worked up quite an appetite from running all over the yard so we induldged in lots of good food.

Like every other holiday we had to dine and dash to get my parents house for Easter round 2!

Our 3 easter baskets and Kinley's new super cute outfits.

I was exhausted by that afternoon so my picture taking abilities really suffered but I did get a few cute ones of Ava & Kinley!

If you look closely you'll see Scotts butt glued to the couch in the background.  He didn't move from 1-6pm due to celebrating Sheltons bachelor party the night before.  ; )

Ava was ready to play but Kinley, not so much.  haha

Kinley finally decided that Ava was nice and that she looked yummy to eat!

Ok now we like each other!  Don't you love how their outfits were coordinated?!  Totally didn't plan that but I wouldn't put it past me!

They were both over it by the end but it was fun while it lasted!

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Um, nap time for Kinley?!

We had a long but very fun Easter weekend with our families and hope you did, too!