We Have Some Milestones!

Anna laughed the most beautiful laugh a few days ago.  I haven't heard one since, but is was wonderful to hear.  I was changing her diaper and she does this thing where she pulls up her dress to suck on it and when I pulled it down and uncovered her face, she gave me this big giggle.  I can't wait to hear it again.  Here are some pictures of Anna and her new favorite thing to do...sucking on her dress.

And while Anna has been twisting her body and being a squirmy worm whenever I change her diaper for a while, she finally gave that extra oomph and rolled all the way over for the first time two days ago.  This time was from her tummy to her back, which seems the easier of the two to me, and really, she doesn't care that much to be on her tummy, so while she twists as far over to the side as she can, I don't think she really wants to roll all the way over to her tummy anyways. 

Three months old is the month for milestones and super cuteness.  I seriously take nibbles of her all the time.

Speaking of adorable little ones, this one is always full of cuteness as well.

Onto another not-so-fun topic...sleep training.  I know there are plenty of opinions on this and I completely believe that you have to find what works for you and your little one. 

For most of my kids, we started with a bassinet next to our bed and switch between sleeping with our baby and putting her/him in the bassinet.  And then around the time they get squirmy, they go into their crib in their own room.  However, the crib has always been available because the next oldest has been 2 1/2 by that point.  Leah is still in her crib, and I plan to keep it that way for many months to come, even until we move at the end of this year as long as she's not climbing out, which she has no interest in yet.

We have the bassinet in our room, which until about a month ago, went pretty much unused.  I started putting Anna in it for naps then so that she'd actually take some good naps.  But she spent nights in bed with Chris and me and I love sleeping with her.  I love snuggling with her at night, being able to slip my shirt up to nurse her and fall back asleep while she was still snacking.  I love waking up to her sweet blue eyes and hearing her cooing at me and sharing those coos with her for the first fifteen minutes every morning, just talking back and forth.  She sleeps in a sleep positioner and I never worried about her rolling over or under me.  And besides, I absolutely hate sleeping by myself and while I know that babies come out of the womb because they are ready to start living their lives a little bit separate from their mommas, I just think I'd want to be all cuddly with me if I were her.

However, for the past week, she has gone from waking once or twice for a middle of the night snack, to waking up four or five times for snacks.  Not good.  So last night when I came up to bed, I fed her and put her in the bassinet instead of in bed with me.  She stayed asleep but an hour later, she woke up to have a snack.  I'm glad it was only an hour later in a way, because I knew for certain that she was plenty fed and did not need a snack.  If it had been three or four hours later, I would have caved and fed her.  But I didn't.  I left in her in the bassinet and for the next almost hour, she lay there, sometimes crying hard, sometimes just fussing, but it was such a long hour for me.  I wanted to go sleep in our extra bed in the playroom, and I would have but I figured it was probably covered in toys and even walking to it across the playroom in the dark would likely result in stepping on and tripping over little toys that would cause me pain.  So I stayed in bed and covered my ears and felt terrible for my husband who gets up early for work and finally Anna fell back asleep.  When we awoke in the morning, it was 8:30 and she was as happy as a clam.  She has never gone that long without eating and has never slept that long either.  It was wonderful and good for her.  It was not fun for her at the time because she didn't know why I wasn't coming to get her, but I know that she needs good sleep to be healthy and happy.

A friend of mine is about to take a far more drastic step in teaching her child independance this weekend.  He is a young 20 something and pretty much won't leave home.  She and her husband are changing the locks this weekend and thinking about it makes me cry.  I've been praying for her and her son all week and I ask you to as well even though you may not know her.  I'm not sure I could be strong enough, but part of raising our children is making hard decisions that will benefit them.


We have our final day in China tomorrow and I'll be sure to give a recap about our travels there and our end of the study feast...yummy.