Sleepy Heads!

I have been too tired to blog lately. It started last weekend when I was in a wedding and the festivities started on Thursday night. Three nights of being up late took a serious toll on me. Then to make things worse, Lucy is REALLY struggling with night time for some reason right now. We made some adjustments in her schedule and she is now a 1 nap baby. I miss the two naps, but the afternoon nap was making it impossible to get her to sleep at night. She is still getting the same amount of sleep during the day - it is just all in one big nap instead of the two smaller ones. So, that has cured the problem of getting her to sleep because now when night time comes, she is exhausted and goes right to sleep. Sounds great, right? Well, she is not staying asleep. It has been close to three weeks since she slept through the night. At first it was just up once, no big deal. But recently she has been up 4-5 times a night, which makes for a very very sleepy mom and dad! Some of the awake periods are only a matter of minutes, while others are much much longer. I know that she can easily make it through the night without eating, but we have started a night time bottle again. It is sometimes the absolute only way to get her to settle down. I hate that this is started again, but what are you going to do? We have been so spoiled because she has always been such a great sleeper. I really have sympathy for those of you who have little ones who are up a lot. I can feel your pain now.

The sleep problem is being caused by one of two things and probably actually a combination of both. First, three teeth have come through this week. Her third bottom tooth showed up Sunday, then the fourth bottom one on Monday, and the third top tooth popped through on Wednesday. That is a lot of activity in that little mouth and we are still waiting on the fourth top tooth. Maybe she is working on some molars. Again, how are we supposed to know? She certainly doesn't open wide and let me take a look and she is none to fond of my fingers in her mouth. The other likely problem is that we have started integrating whole milk into her soy bottles again. We started this a while ago but stopped when she got an intestinal bug. I don't think that she is tolerating the milk too well. She is very gassy, which is not normal for her. Her diapers are totally normal though, so again, who knows if it is the milk? I went back to straight soy this afternoon and evening, so we will see if it helps. If it does, we are done with the whole milk for now. The part that makes it so hard for me to figure out what the problem is, is that she is perfectly happy and normal throughout the whole day. It is only at night time. Is that normal for teeth or any other problems? She is not fussy or grouchy at all during the day. We are open for any advice at this point, so if you have any ideas, please chime in. Also, we have tried all kinds of things, like putting her in our bed and nothing is working. I just want a normal night of sleep. The really bad thing for me is that I myself am a terrible sleeper. So, once she is up, it takes me FOREVER to get back to sleep. So, I am really dragging.

In happier news, Lucy has FINALLY decided this week that she is willing to give kisses. I know, you are thinking she should have been giving kisses for a long time now, but she has not. She simply wouldn't. Monday night I did my usual and asked for a kiss and she actually leaned in and kissed me - kissing noise and all. Then she was blowing kisses. Then she was kissing Justin. Can I just say that I LOVE BABY KISSES! I even take them now when her whole face is covered in food. Any time she will give em up, we take em.

I don't think I have mentioned this, but she is obsessed with any painting or picture on the wall and really any photographs at all. Maybe she is going to be an artist or a photographer. She points to every picture/painting on any wall and makes this noise that means - tell me about that one mama. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time examining and discussing art and pictures. She is getting so smart that she really recognizes what certain things are. For instance, if you ask her "Where is your baby, Lucy? I think she wants you to rock her." She will find her baby in the room and take her over to her mini rocking chair, toss her in the chair, climb in the chair (and she usually ends up sitting on baby's head) and will rock the chair. She looks for the dogs if I mention them. She knows where her belly button is and she really likes to look for it and anyone else's who will let her. If you ask her what is in her mouth, she will open it as wide as she can and show you her tongue. Really cute. It is so fun to watch her do something new every day.

Here are the latest pictures of the little pumpkin who USED to like to sleep!

Thoroughly enjoying a popsicle with her friend Emerson.

Myself and the blushing bride.

Lucy and her birthday loot.


PRECIOUS!