Healthy Sleep, Happy Baby...and Mommy!

Kailie is still in the lead for the Happy Heiny's contest! She just needs to stay in the top 5, which I'm confident she will. Can't get too comfortable in first place though, since the company ultimately chooses the winner from the top 5. Plus we're not even halfway through October! Thank you for those of you who have voted and keep the votes coming!

Kailie has been babbling instead of cooing the past week or two, and likes to say "mamamama". Can't quite count it as her first word though :-) We took the netting down from her tub and she LOVED kicking her little legs until most of the water was gone. Very cute. It's times like these that I miss Jeff the most-- especially because I could have used him to go grab the camera! I'm not sure how I'm going to get a shot of her in the tub without getting the camera soaked but we'll try.

I let Kailie cry herself to sleep for the first time this week. It breaks my heart, but she's getting better at learning to go to sleep by herself. I am not one to just let my baby cry and have tried everything I can to avoid it. The literature out there argues that a happy, healthy baby is one who gets adequate rest, and sometimes that means letting them cry. Kailie's napping has been so problematic, so I finally gave in to trying some of the techniques, but adjusted to fit my parenting style a little. We've started to use the same lulluby CD everytime, cuddle for a while, then I set her in the crib and stay by her side for a couple minutes before leaving. She cries and whines a little, but not like before. It must be working, because she's napping (in her crib!) right now. I just need to be consistent for a while to establish a routine, and hopefully this will help keep me from going crazy!!