Memorial Day weekend highlights

We started off Friday by going to a restaurant with an outdoor seating area downtown. The weather was picture perfect so we definitely wanted to enjoy it. Hadley loves watching cars go by so everyone was happy. 

Saturday we did end up going to the Farmer's Market but they didn't have a huge selection. We did get eggs from a local farm, apple butter and strawberry jam. There was a live musical performer that Hadley LOVED listening to.

She also took a dip in her WARM pool. She tried drinking the water on her belly, silly girl. I got in with her since she can't fully sit up on her own.

Monday we went and watched James fly his RC airplane. Hadley was surprisingly interested. I didn't think she'd look up and keep watching, but she did. We went to this huge park that has camping, boat ramps, playgrounds, and a splash pad! We knew Hadley couldn't really use it but we thought it'd be fun for her to see other kids playing. I had fun running through some, she did not want much to do with it.

We obviously did more things but that is what we captured with photos. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post about Hadley's room photos with the new project we did.

Hadley's sleep update

I knew that when we got back from my sister's that we would be implementing a sleep training method.  I have been doing a lot of research and reading on the subject. I know everyone has a different opinion on the subject and I'm not even going to go there. What I believe is Hadley truly wasn't ready until now (maturity wise and just being capable of it). I also wanted to be sure she was getting enough to eat as I was about to cut her off at night. I felt that the sleep training wouldn't be successful unless I cut out feedings. Everything I read says they do not need food after 6 months of age at night and they would not starve (which of course is what I was worried about). It just got to the point that she was waking up sometimes every hour to eat. I would fight her so hard to just rock her to sleep and sometimes it would work sometimes it wouldn't Based on what has happened, I am fully convinced she was just eating because it was habit.

I also knew I didn't want to just leave her in there crying so I went with the Ferber method of sleep training. It's not full cry it out as it is "progressive waiting". Here's a quick summary on this blog if you're interested. I read the whole book which I absolutely recommend because he explains the reasoning behind a lot of sleep habits/patterns. I kept a journal on my phone of what went down and you won't believe it. I can hardly believe it. Let's just set this up as to what was happening the night before we started. She would wake up 3-4 times and I fed her once. The week before we started I was feeding her 2-3 times but I got her down to one so it wouldn't be so abrupt when I stopped. The week we were in NY she woke up every 30-60 min. I also rocked her for 30 minutes to put her to bed ASLEEP for naps and bedtime. With the new method, I put her down mostly awake but no rocking at all, just put down. I will also mention this is right around the time she started belly sleeping. I knew she'd be a belly sleeper, who wouldn't want to be! Plus she could safely do it and move her head so I was ok with it.

Here's my notes:

Night 1 sleep training
Bed put down 815
Screamed a couple min then pause for chill  then crying weakly  on and off
838
Crying a good bit, eating sleep sack
842 james went in to talk to her she continued screaming during most
Couple small cries until
853 asleep

Crying 1207
Me Reassure at 1212
She's still real pissed
1218 James went in
She's pissed
1229 stopped (was just about to go in)

256 cry
258 stop
Cried briefly around 310

Cried briefly 523
up around 7

Night 2
Put down 828
Awake barely and slept
230 cry
Went in after 5
She settled in after 5 min
Stirred cried around 630
Resettled but sorta awake cry
Up at 650

Night 3
Down 817 cried 3 sec
Up at 630

Nap 924
Up 1054
Freakin hour and half!! Whaaat

Down 115
Sleeping 122
158 up

Night 4Down 824
Tiny whining sleeping 826
408 crying pissed
Intermittent cry 411
Sleep 417
Up at 7

Nap 1
Down 924
Up  1042

Night 5
Down 820 drowsy no peep
Cried a random cry at 430
Up idk when but quietly playing at 711

Night 6
Down at 8
Cranky ate not well
Asleep 802
Up 655

Night 7
Sleep eating
Down sleeping 814
Up at 7
Cried out a couple times this morning

Night 8
Down 818 no fuss
Up 652

Night 9
Sleep eating down 815
Crying a good bit 1130 almost went in
Cried briefly another time
Up crying at 533 not looking like sleep so got her at 550

Night 10
down at 8:30 no peep until 540 fussed slept til 620ish and got her

To say this is a miracle of sleep is an understatement. I don't know why Hadley took to this so well but we can not be happier. She apparently wanted to fall asleep on her own and just needed me to let her do it. I tried a version of this a while ago and it did not go like this, so that's why I truly believe it wouldn't have worked until about now anyway. I still can't believe I just set her in and that's it. We have our nights back! We've watched several movies we've been meaning to watch! She even did a couple days of LONG naps! That's just unheard of. As of the past couple days though she's been getting up earlier and earlier, I don't know what that's about. I'm hoping to get back to the closer to 7 time frame. The long naps also have stopped, but I won't complain because she's sleeping all night! 

I was trying to stall a nap one day and I didn't realize she had just fell asleep, oops :)

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to those who have served and are serving, 

Weekend

Well today (I'm writing this Thursday) feels like the weekend because James has a family day Friday and Memorial Day off Monday. We decided to stay up and have a staycation. We plan to MAYBE explore some local places around here that we haven't gotten the chance to. We may go visit the Farmer's Market here in Columbus, or even venture to Starkville (less than 30 min. away) to explore the campus of Mississippi State University. Or maybe we will go explore the Waverly mansion in West Point, MS (less than 30 min away as well).I may finish the last of Hadley's room projects, I may not :). I'd like to go see the Hangover Movie, but unless James and I take shifts going, we probably won't do that. Unless one of our family members is coming to watch Hadley, any takers? We are going to a neighbor's house for a BBQ Saturday, that should be fun. I love me a good barbecue. Hadley will be sporting a CUTE outfit from our embroidery machine, STAY TUNED. We may go get froyo, we may not. Maybe we'll just stay home and watch Hadley roll around the whole living room (I do that all day every day so I'm voting no for that). Hadley actually seems to be getting bored here so I'm voting for a lot of adventures out of the house. She's getting more able to be taking to restaurants so we may explore some more of that.

MSU

Waverly Mansion

As you can see we may do a lot of things or not, what do you have planned?! Also, stay tuned next week for an update on Hadley's sleep, IT'S A BIG NEW DEVELOPMENT.

Hadley visited Daddy at work Thursday, she's very into her job

Final kitchen update before and after

Well it is finally all done. James did most of the work himself, saving us money but man was it a long process (mainly because his actual working got in the way). If you've been keeping up with the process, you've seen bits and pieces. Here's the final product before and after.

BEFORE

AFTER

to see all the lighting updates

It doesn't even feel like it's the same house we moved into. We feel like we've definitely made it our own and couldn't be happier. What do you guys think?

baby food

I'm making Hadley's baby food because I can! I stay at home so I figure it's the best thing for her. Sure it is a lot easier to go buy jars at the store but I did one hour cram session. I don't know why I didn't think about this before but I put Hadley in her Ergo carrier (which by the way is a MUST). I absolutely LOVE it. It's my sister's and it's so easy to get her in on my own. She loves it. She helped me make food and loved to watch. I told her she better cooperate or she won't get homemade food. I guess she agreed it was a good idea because she stuck with me through making a bunch of peas, bananas, and pears. She started to get antsy so hopefully today I'll finish making sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and maybe apples. She's like most everything so far. We tried avocados a while ago and it wasn't a huge hit but we'll revisit it.

My dad got my sister the Beaba and she is letting me use it as she is out of the puree stage. It's a bit pricey but it lets you steam and puree all in one so it's very convenient, not to mention easy peasy. I freeze them in ice cube trays and pop them out. So far so good!

Hadley's 6 month update!

Hadley baby is a half a year old! whaaaat, seriously she is 6 months! She is just such a happy, smiley baby. 

Stats: height- 16 1/4 75th percentile, weight- 15 pounds 9 ounces 50th percentile

New Developments:

LOTS of new developments since last month! Baby Hadley ROLLS non-stop, not just once or twice, EVERY time you set her down. She even does continuous rolls and ends up in a circle. She has started putting her butt in the air in preparation for crawling! She's crazy :) She also has TWO teeth! She had one come in a couple weeks ago and the other one popped up a few days ago. She wasn't super cranky just woke WAY more frequently at night. She's starting to like the car/car seat a little better and has even fallen asleep on her own in there. I even got to the pediatrician's office (30 min. drive) with no one in the back seat to entertain her AND no crying!

yes she was crying, I just took that opportunity to show you her teeth, I haven't' been able to get a peak long enough unless she cries or else she licks me!

Personality:
Hadley is still a very happy girl. She smiles at everyone and loves people watching. She's pretty laid back and is willing to just chill with you. She grabs EVERYTHING and puts it in her mouth.

my happy munchkin

Eating:
She is eating closer to every 3 hours and is still breastfed. We had introduced some solids (bananas, avocado, pears, and sweet potatoes). I am making my own baby food and she seems to love it. She's all about food, can't get enough. The pediatrician said we need be working up to 3 meals a day pretty soon so I will be upping it to 2 a day to start with in addition to breast milk.

Sleeping:
*sigh* Nothing good to report here :( significant awful sleep going on. She was even waking up every hour some nights over this last month. We are pretty consistent about waking every 2-3 hours now and most times demands to be fed unless I have the patience to rock her past her screaming. We are going to be doing some sleep training in the next few days/ weeks because this rocking to sleep for naps (which are still 30 minutes tops) and bedtime is for the birds. It's what we had to do to get her to sleep at all, but I think we're ready to see what she can do on her own a bit. Wish us luck!

cute summer romper

Randoms:
She's still wearing size 2 diapers (we're trying The Honest Company diapers- eco-friendly chemical free diapers). Hadley is in size 6 months or 6-9 months.

can she get any cuter?

She's been doing this lately! She does it on the floor or anytime you put her flat. I think she's trying to do a back bend in preparation for gymnastics :)

mid roll

pretty face

This past weekend

I am back in Mississippi and ready to get back to regular blogging, hopefully. This past weekend, James joined me at my sister's (to pick me up) and boy did I have a surprise for him! His bestest friends from high school came to visit! Missy came up with the idea and we then put the wheels in motion. Her husband, Chris, was James' best man in our wedding (along with James' brother). They had been chatting a lot more than usual lately so we figured it was time for them to get together. They have a 2.5 year old and they've never met Hadley. We had a low key weekend planned so we could just catch up. My sister has been very nice to let me entertain in her lovely home :)

What's different about these photos......

haha Hadley found our photo bomber :)

we went down to the neighborhood's playground

the boys with Hadley

proof that Matthew got close to the "frightening" dog

Matt and Max had the best time playing cars all weekend, Hadley was entertained

Missy and Hadley hanging

Stay tuned for my next blog post, it will be Hadley's 6 month update. It's a little late but we have her appointment today.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my first Mother's Day and I wanted to wish my mom the best day also! She's the best mom and gigi ever!

Also, shout out to my mother in law, happy Mother's Day to the best mother-in-law and grandma, ps time for a visit again!

Max and Hadley on a plane

Well Hadley had her first plane ride. The way to ny was much better than the ride back, but it wasn't totally bad. She didn't make a sound until we were deplaning and then she screamed for a while. On the way back she got tired and cried loudly a couple times. I didn't care, so all in all not bad.

Max was very energetic and wanting to get down most of the flight. He did very well though. 

He sat in the aisle most the time. 

Max was very tuckered out and he fell asleep while we were assembling the car seats. 

All in all not bad but I wouldn't do it again without James/a helper and definitely only a couple hours maximum. 

Here's a link to my sister's blog that has more happenings.

Happenings

Well blog readers, I've been Mia lately because I've been at my sister's and we also took a quick trip up to ny. We saw lots of family and had a great time. Hadley attended her first baby shower and met a lot of family, including her great grandma! She had a lot of cute outfit changes so here are some :) I will go more in depth later on.

Hadley's sleep has gone from bad to worse do the trip in that aspect was really unfortunate. Max also decided not to sleep and he developed full blown tantrums. Luckily they were both well behaved and good troopers during the day.  Today, I'm watching max and Hadley alone! Wish me luck.