sleep / crying it out / co-sleeping

as most of you know, we are not sleeping. Harlow wakes up a solid six times a night for about 20 minutes each time. it is making us hallucinate and grow more & more tragic by the day. we started a form of sleep training last night. so we will be on a schedule for the next 28 days. mostly, we are following the "No Cry Sleep Solution." it is basically a gentle way of getting babe on a stricter schedule, to bed early, and sleeping through the night. it uses words/signs/queues/ and a comfort object to aid in getting the little one to sleep better. we are well read, prepared, and ready for this 28 day journey.

everyone and their mom keeps pushing the "Cry It Out" method to us. my gut just tells me that that is not the way for us. disclaimer; i am not making a judgement of you as a parent if that method worked for you/them. it is just not the choice that i/we feel comfortable making right now. at this stage in Harlow's development, i do not believe she has the ability to understand that when we leave her we are just in the next room. so, in my opinion, she is crying because she feels abandoned and is unable to understand that we will indeed be coming back for her. the thought of her alone in a room crying and wanting one of us just about makes me want to die. am i saying that i will always feel this way? no. but at this point in her age and development, these are my thoughts. so what does that mean for us? i think creating a schedule is going to be the starting point. i kind of saw myself as an easy breezy mama before this. and my plan was putting her down when she asked to be put down. i am now seeing that that has some fault. she needs to be put down before she asks to be put down. so we are creating a schedule of getting her to bed early. and we are using key words/signals/ect to create a sleep environment that overtakes her. fingers crossed.

all that being said - i have a new found respect for people that co-sleep and have family beds. i had always thought of myself as someone who would never co-sleep and actually found the idea of it a bit odd. i no longer feel that way. i vividly respect parent's/families that chose to co-sleep if that is what is right for them. i am still torn as to how i/we identity in this manner. will we be co-sleepers? will she sleep in a bed in our room? will we put her in the nursery? i don't know. i know for the winter she will remain in our room due to the fact that we have such an old farm house with wacky heat. in the spring, i am thinking it will be the perfect time to introduce her to her nursery/crib. but we'll see. if there is one thing that i have learned about being a mama is that you have no idea who you will be until you are in the midst of going through it. there is no right/wrong answer. it is all about what is right for you and your little one. no judgements. do what you need to do to not only survive the moment but to love/support/nurture your amazing baby.

i leave you with this cute little picture. Harlow chose the Ugly Doll that Alex bought her as her comfort object. she loves to rub her face all over the felt body. too cute.

FIRSTS!!!

week 24. a week of firsts. Harlow is oh so close to 6months old and progressing at a rate that shocks me. this past week was nothing short of an indicator of how fast she is growing.

FIRST TEEF. not one by TWO teef popped up. they are jagged and sharp like razer blades. and they're going to be oh so cute. they are the two bottom ones in the middle. the white just popped up from the gums and they are coming up to full size fast. they're also super cute. no pictures yet. she is not keene to letting us see them. you can usually only see them when she is wailing. and while we have lots of cute wailing pictures - it just seems cruel. ha! pictures sopon enough, promise!

FIRST FOOD. we gave her avocado on Tuesday. she liked it okay. she was more shocked by it than anything. and she really just wanted to play with the spoon. she made the best faces everytime we put it in her mouth. and while she wasn't super excited about it, she did cry when we finally took it away. we gave it to her every day last week. and then, because she wasn't pooping, we gave her the tiniest bit of prune juice. boy was that a hit! all smiles and grabbing for the bowl/spoon. we followed up her week of food with the standard rice cereal last night for dinner. that is generally what people seem to start with. and i can see why because Hlow loved the rice cereal. it was super bland but she thought it was the bees knees. here is my favorite pic of her eating the avocado. i think this picture pretty much sums it up.



FIRST SHOES. Harlow wore her first pair of shoes on Sunday. they were a nice worn in pair of leather booties with wool lining. second hand score for a yard sale. while they were a bit too big for her feet, they were a bit too tight for her chunky little legs!





FIRST CRAWL - ATTEMPT. and this morning she got up on all fours - knees and hands - and tried to scoot forward. what? a first crawl? the best thing about it is that she didn't move her hands or knees at all...she just moved her belly for a while and tried to almost jump her way forward. is she going to crawl already? i hope not. our 220 year old farm house is not ready for a crawler!