rested, relaxed, and rejuvenated

to sleep or not to sleep...

Norah has been doing..........................FABULOUS!!! She has slept through the night, without me getting up and checking on her at all the past 2 nights! The few nights before that she basically slept through the night, but I had to go in and lay her back down or "re-binky" her once or twice. She has been going to sleep right away, usually cries pretty hard as I leave the room, but then within 30 seconds she has been quiet the past 2 nights!

For naps, I was still staying in her room with her while she fell asleep. But a few days ago, she started becoming so hard to get to sleep, that I decided to try and leave the room and let her cry a bit. (I'm getting so brave!) I was super nervous that she would cry for a long time and that I would rush in and save her. However, she hasn't cried longer than 5 minutes at naptime and I've been doing this every nap since then.

So basically, I am a new person. I have actually been staying up past 7pm and have caught up on reading all my friends blogs and numerous magazines that have been waiting for me. I'm a bit nervous for when something comes up that has potential to screw her sleeping up like teeth, another cold, travel, etc. But I'm hopeful!

the dairy and soy diaries...

I am still eating super strict, absolutely no dairy or soy. However, I feel like I'm not producing enough milk anymore. :( I think it started to decline as soon as I stopped feeding Norah in the night, which makes sense because it is a supply and demand system! And, since I have been going 12-13 hours without nursing Norah at night, I guess my supply is dwindling. So, I tried the super expensive nasty formula that Norah refused to drink when this whole thing started back in August/September... She drank it right away! I was thinking this might be the case now that she is used to other flavors from solid foods. So, I've been supplementing my nursing with approximately 2 bottles of formula/day, along with 3 solid meals. I would like to keep nursing for a while longer for a few reasons. 1. It's best for little Norah as far as nutrition and immunity go. 2. It's cheaper! 3.I love that time to cuddle my little girl. So I'm going to try and keep it up for now and keep supplementing and we will see how long it lasts!

milestones...

Norah may, (or may not) have said "mama" last week. I was leaving on Friday night and she wasn't very happy about it, and she looked right up at me as she started to cry and wave her arms and said ma-ma. It was the clearest I've ever heard her babble anything. Ryan and I both looked at each other like - did she just say mama? It hasn't been said as clear since, so I'm not sure it was said, or if I just wanted her to say it. So we'll see.

Lately, I've actually been contemplating writing some more in my blog, and writing things other than poop and sleep updates! I've also started thinking about my next house project. I've also worked on Norah's baby book a bit. It's amazing what a few hours of sleep back to back will do for you. I feel like I'm coming back to life!

Here are a few pics from last week!

Early morning play time, Norah was happy after 12 hours straight of sleep!
She really wanted to read her book before getting dressed!
She's so cute, how could I resist?!
She wasn't so sure about getting her picture taken this early, but Daddy likes to get a pic on the mornings he doesn't get to see her before work, so we had to take one right away!
Heavenly Father, thank you for sleep. Even if the sleeping streak ends tonight, I'm thankful for what I've gotten! Amen.