I use to try and post twice a month. Now, it's becoming a once-a-month thing. So much has happened though, and I probably won't be able to remember it all. Still, let's cover some highlights.
Paige went through a sleep regression for a while. She would wake up several times a night; sometimes just feeding her would put her back to sleep, and other times, it took more effort. Both Stephen and I felt the dip in our sleep, and that made things rough for a bit. Stephen is really good at picking up the slack on my hard days. Paige seems to be doing a lot better now, though she wakes up more often than she use to. I guess this is what it's like to have a normal baby. I've become a lot better at nursing her in bed though. Often in the mornings, she'll wake up after Stephen's gotten up and I'll bring her to bed with me for a few more hours of sleep and let her rest on his side of the bed. I've done research into safe bed sharing, so don't hate.
She's about 50% on putting herself to sleep in the crib, which is a big step from a month ago. If she fights it long enough, I'll get her up and put her to sleep myself. Otherwise, I stand by her crib and give her the pacifier a few times while either singing to her or playing music to her. We bounce back and forth between Geronimo and the Primary songbook. Sometimes she welcomes her nap, and other times, not so much. She's also cut down on the amounts of naps she takes each day. Where she use to sleep every two to three hours, she now only naps two or three times a day. I'm adjusting our schedule to fit that.
Paige has grown a lot in her abilities. She's now able to roll over both directions. She did a full 360 once too. She's much more interested in toys and loves to play with them. She's also much more interested in things that aren't toys that are fun to play with too, which keeps me on my toes sometimes. If she can reach it, it's only a matter of seconds before it's in her mouth. She will wiggle and squirm herself towards toys, and spins around in a circle to play with different toys. It's only a matter of time before she figures out how to get on her knees, and then I know she'll be off. She's recently discovered her toes, too, and that's been one of her favorite toys.
She also likes to give kisses to me, and often just sucks on my chin. I've learned that she's ticklish on her jawline and I make her laugh a lot because of it. It's pretty cute. She's still able to fit in some of her 0-3 month clothes, but for the most part, she's comfortable in the 3-6 month sizes. She's getting better at her balance, but still can't sit up on her own yet. Once she does, I'll start trying to feed her solids. I'm excited for that, not because it'll replace nursing, but because it'll be fun to watch her learn and try new things. I'm determined to give her lots of healthy options and hopefully start some good habits.
Speaking of healthy options and good habits, I've joined a mommy fitness challenge. It's eight weeks long and started last Monday. In this past week's time, I've lost 6 pounds and 5 inches. I'm feeling pretty accomplished for that. I've also gone running a lot and though I'm slow, there's so much improvement than there was a month or two ago. I've been working on eating healthy, whole, clean foods. I'm drinking green smoothies and eating a lot of yummy salads and just trying to emphasis plants in my diet. I told Stephen yesterday that my diet is "I can eat a lot of stuff, I just can't eat a lot of stuff." In other words, portion control on many healthy options. I'm glad I'm already seeing the benefits of this lifestyle change, and I hope to continue for the next seven weeks and beyond. Paige is a great motivation for me to live the kind of life I really want to.
Independence Day turned out to be two days for us this year since Stephen got Friday off in observance. I insisted we all wear red, white, and/or blue for both the 3rd and the 4th. Friday night, we went to Riverton and watched a parade. It was a little stressful to find a good parking spot and a good spot to watch the parade, but it turned out to be perfect. The parades I watched growing up were much shorter and less exciting than this parade. It lasted over an hour and had a lot of fun floats. Paige had the "not impressed" look through a lot of it, but I was impressed. I'm just grateful she didn't cry and hate it, even if she didn't understand anything.
When it got dark that night and after we put Paige in bed, Stephen and I went outside with the baby monitor and lit some little fireworks. We had sparklers and pop its and one that you set on the road and it sparked and stuff. It was pretty fun to play with fire with my best friend. I squealed probably more than I should have. Stephen had fun too.
Saturday morning we went to a park in Sandy. There, we watched police dogs do obstacle courses and attack "bad guys." We also walked around and looked at the booths. There was one that sold cute books and I bought one for Paige for Christmas. We spent the afternoon at home and I made a fun 4th of July indoor BBQ. I made tuna burgers with a bean salad and corn on the cob. We drank fruit punch out of our fancy glasses and Paige cooperated for most of the meal. Later, we had angel food cake with strawberry sauce. Super yummy!
That night, we watched the fireworks. The three of us dove up the hill and found a clearing where we could look over the valley. There were so many fireworks! It seemed like every mile, there was another launch site. We listened to the radio play patriotic music and enjoyed the show for a while. Paige slept through most of it, which means they weren't loud enough to scare her, so that was nice. Overall, we had a really good holiday.
It's hard to believe it's almost been five months since Paige was born. I'm sure I'm forgetting to note a lot of her new accomplishments, as well as interesting things we've done in the past month. That why I use to write more often. But my days are full with family and health and homemaking now, as well as plenty of Reba and Family Feud. Not every day is easy, but overall it's a lot of fun.
