All I want for Christmas is a Silent Night

...and I got it!!

After nearly a year of broken sleep, Katen and Mommy are sleepin' through the night. Hallelujah!

I truly wish I'd started sooner but this is how we did it.
Katen was waking at 12-ish and 3 or 4-ish in the morning wanting a bottle. She truly as hungry and would wolf it down in no time before going back to sleep. In order to break the habit of needing the extra calories in the middle of the night, I cut back on the amount of formula in her bottle adding water instead.

Night one, her bottles contained 4 oz formula and 1 oz water.
Night two, her bottles contained 3 oz formula and 2 oz water.
By Night three her bottles contained 2 oz formula and 3 oz water and she was done with it. She did not want the watered down bottle. She's start sucking and then stop. I'd rocker her a little and then put her back in her bed. She'd fuss a little while she got comfy but went back to sleep.
On night four she skipped the midnight feeding and only fussed a little at 4am before putting herself back to sleep. She did the same on night five and six, but by night seven (one week!) she was sleeping through the night. Wahoo!
Like I said, my only regret is that I didn't give this a shot sooner.

I was worried that our sleep training would all go down the toilet when we took a trip to California (two time zones away) two weeks after starting but everything ended up just fine. She slept mostly through the night unless she was cold (the heat in our condo was funky) in which case Katen got to cosleep next to Mommy for the first (and probably last) times. Admitedly... I liked it. She's a great snuggler and doesn't move around too much. Nonetheless, I didn't sleep much after she came into the bed with us. I definitely wouldn't do it full time.

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Getting ready for Christmas

This Christmas will not be Katen's first. Here's a picture of her a year ago on Christmas day. I remember that the nurse wasn't supposed to remove her from under the Billy lights but she let us anyway. I was so grateful to her for that moment. She wasn't much bigger than the length of my arm.





My Oh My what a difference a year makes...

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Have you seen my two teeth?

Here's Katen showing off her little chicklets. Only two teeth so far.







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Walking in a Winter ONEderland

Yep that's right, she's WALKING! Consistently. She's up to 16 steps at a time. I need to get some video but Katen is so proud of herself that she'll walk a little ways and then get so busy clapping for herself that she falls over. Ha! She had a great time entertaining everyone at Thanksgiving with her new skills.

This new milestone marks her transition into the "toddler" room at daycare and the requirement that she wear shoes while she's there now. That's not a problem though. She's got a few pairs of pretty snazzy shoes including red patent leather, cheetah spots, and some snazzy sneakers. Katen loves her pediped shoes.

I've also been working on the details of her first birthday party which will be a "Winter ONEderland" theme.

Here's the cake (except it will have blue satin ribbon as opposed to the red velvet in the picture)

This little guy will sit on top

Here's her dress and bow (the white ribbon on the bow has snowflakes on it)

And the invitations - "It's a winter One-derland. Join us for some frosty fun to celebrate Katen turning one."

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Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving, mostly... except for when Katen screamed for the entire hour-long trip to Aunt Tammy's house. Mommy and Daddy wanted to bang their head against the steering wheel.

Here are a few pictures of Katen helping mommy taste test the pumpkin filling...

Yep, she approves.

Note to Santa: Bring Mommy a new kitchen, please. :)

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