As February is a short month, it's fair to say this month really flew by! This month has brought only a few, although big, new things! Most importantly, you're talking! You now say "da-da," "abua" for agua/water, "aya" for araña/spider and you even say "ya-ya!" for Tia Ñaña, which is your aunt Blanca! Your aunt Blanca taught you "araña" with a little toy spider you have - which honestly kinda creeps me out and I've been tempted to hide it - but once you started saying the word, there was just no way. And you looooooove your Tia Ñaña! She comes over and plays with you and runs around with you when Mommy and Daddy are too pooped to take another step! She's one of your favorite playmates! You say her name whenever she's here. It's so sweet to see you two!
Eating has made huge improvements this month. It's been a battle to get you to eat chunky food, but now you eat ravioli!!! And you love it! You also eat broccoli and rotini pasta (chopped up) as well. I'm so amazed!
Here's a little clip of you saying "abua" (for water) and eating ravioli:
This month you've dramatically cut back on nursing. You're now down to once day, right before we start your bedtime routine. You were nursing 4 times a day for a while, which got cut back to 2 because you fought it and didn't seem to want to nurse (there were much more interesting things to do!!) Now it's down to once a day and only for a few minutes. But honestly, if I don't remind you, you could totally go without it. I'm torn about it - a part of me feels happy to give it up - I've been doing it for so long already! The other part of me is sad to give it up. I guess it means that you're growing up... it's the last thing from your babyhood that remains. You're a toddler now! You do such big girl things. Nursing is the one thing that's just ours and makes me feel like you're still my little baby. I expected to nurse until you were a year and a half or so... I guess I felt I would have to wean you off it, and instead, I think I'm the one that needs to be weaned. You do ask for it sometimes - you've learned the sign - but I know that if you weren't reminded every night, it would soon be a distant memory. I'm willing to go as long as you are. I know it won't be for too much longer, though. I'll miss our time together... but I know we'll find another activity that we can both enjoy. :)
Now, on to the big news of the month... Sleep has always been an issue since you were a baby. You're great at staying asleep, but it's so hard to get you to fall asleep! Your Daddy and I have tried everything: you nursed to sleep for a while, then you slept on us, then you slept a bit in your swing, in the Ergo, and then finally we got you to fall asleep in your crib by rocking you to sleep. Not the best solution, but it worked.
Now been almost two weeks that we've changed how you fall asleep for your bedtime and naps. Since we'd been trying to get pregnant, we know this was one of the major things that would need to change - and soon. Up until two weeks ago, we'd rocked you to sleep. For every nap and every night at bedtime. For naps, I would usually sit on the big ol' pilates ball we have and bounce you until you fall asleep. Then I bounce an extra 5 minutes to make sure you're asleep and then I put you into bed. At bedtime, your Daddy is uncomfortable on the ball, so he'll just hold you in his arms and rock you. It used to be ok when you were little... but now you're weighing 20 pounds and getting heavier! And both Daddy and I feel it on our backs. The soreness! Most times you fall asleep within 20 minutes - which leaves me pretty sore, but it's manageable... but then there are days when your Daddy and I are switching back and forth because our arms have fallen asleep or because our backs can't take it anymore and we're sweating like crazy and you still haven't fallen asleep! We would do this at one point every single day for 3 naps a day and then again at bedtime. I think my record for rocking you has been an hour straight... ugh, painful! Quite a workout! So now that I'm pregnant with your little sibling, soon I won't be able to hold you for that long. But even that wasn't enough to motivate us - your Daddy and I have been DREADING having to put you to sleep any other way because we know how you get when we put you in the crib and you haven't fallen asleep, or if you wake up as we're putting you in - you scream bloody murder! You hate it and scream and then stand up in the crib and stomp and cry until we take you out and rock you some more. We'd tried to rub your tummy before, but you'd cry yourself into a frenzy and we knew nobody would get any sleep. So we gave up and rocked you again and until you fell asleep. We've never been comfortable with the "crying it out" method. We want you to know that we are there for you and if you're alone or scared and want us by your side, that we'll be there. Hearing you cry is breaks our heart... especially when we know all you want is comfort from us. We know that "crying it out" works for a lot of people, especially when they've tried everything, but we're willing to keep trying other methods first.
Up until a few weeks ago, rocking you had worked in getting you to fall asleep, so we've stuck to it. BUT. Now things have changed. For 3 nights you kept waking up during the night around 2am.... and, as usual, we'd go in to rock you... and nothing. You wouldn't fall asleep. We'd be up for THREE HOURS trying to get you to go back down. Ugh!!!! After the third night, we knew we had to try something different. Your Daddy does bedtime with you and he was brave enough to make the first change. He went through the whole bedtime routine: playtime, clean up time, bath time, reading time, good night to Fort Lauderdale time, turned off the lights, turned on the noise machine and then instead of rocking her, he put you in your in the crib. Of course you cried, but he kneeled down next to you over the railing and sang to you and rubbed your back and your tummy. At first you fought it... but eventually you fell asleep. Holy moly!! We couldn't believe it! HALLELUJAH!!! The next day, you were so tired for your nap, I didn't have to try to put you down, so napping wasn't an issue and I didn't do the new method. That night though, your Daddy did it again and it wasn't so bad! You fell asleep with some tears, but with tummy rubs and to the tune of "Mila's Song" (a.k.a. "Elmo's Song" with Mila's name instead, haha). And then the next day, I did it for your nap and it worked! Only took 30 minutes! Again, there were some tears, but then you'd start playing with your socks or your burp cloth and then you'd fall asleep. We did have a few set backs where it took us longer, or where you'd cry longer, but here we are, two weeks later and you're napping and sleeping so much better. No rocking at all! And you haven't woken up during the night since!! Aaaaaand Mommy and Daddy's backs are rejoicing! What a relief!!!! This is such a breakthrough! We still cannot believe this actually working! Everyone is sleeping so much better now. Why, oh, why did we not try this sooner?!?! We're thrilled!!
What an exciting month. I can only imagine what next month will bring. Perhaps "ma-ma" is around the corner, maybe? I still can't believe you say "spider" and not "mommy" yet!!! C'mon! Show me some love too! :)
I love you my sweet little girl!
Your Mommy
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