A Week of Sleep Training....

So we have been doing sleep training. What is sleep training some of you may ask? Whelp, it is “training” your baby to sleep through the night. We are doing the “cry it out” technique. At our six month check up Dr. Yu said to let her cry for 20 minutes. I tried this several weeks ago one night and decided it wasn’t for us, but now I have noticed that Easton has been waking up at the same time every night, in the 2:00 – 4:00 AM hours. So I decided to give the cry it out theory one more whirl. But of course I decided to start this the week Josh has headed out of town for work. Really I am that dumb to lay in bed by myself listening to our daughter cry her eyes out for her Momma. Stupid… Stupid.. Stupid…, but I am ready to start getting at least 8 hours of sleep again.

Valentine’s Day night, Night 1, Momma had to do some tough love and so began night 1 of sleep training. Easton woke up at 3:26 am. Easton cried until 3:46 am. Momma got up at 3:46 am and rocked Easton back to sleep. Momma wasn’t back in bed until after 4:00 am. Needless to say Momma was REALLY late to work that day.

Night 2- High five to Momma! I won’t go as far as saying Amen, but I will do my silly Momma dance! Easton work up at 3:06 am and by 3:15am she had put herself back to sleep. In 9 minutes! 9 minutes! This is huge people! I was so very proud of her. She only cried 9 minutes before she conked back out. Of course I HAD to go check on her once she feel back to sleep, but I waited until I knew she was sleeping good before tip toeing into her room. There she was knees tucked underneath her, booty up in the air, laying on top of her covers and vertical in the horizontal crib sleeping like a little angel. I didn’t dare move her to get to her blanket to cover her up, instead I figured she would be warm enough with her sleeper on and her little heater going.

Night 3- No 3:00 am wake up call! Let me repeat that! NO 3:00 am wake up call! However she did wake up at 5:00 am, but hey I will take that any day. So guess what this Momma did? Scooped her up and brought into our bed for 30 minutes until my alarm when off. Bad habit I know, but in my defense my husband was still out of town and I reeeally wanted that extra 30 minutes.

Night 4- We are on a roll! Eaton woke up at 4:46 am and I sent Daddy into rock her to back to sleep while I got 30 more minutes of sleep. Needless to say her and Daddy slept in the nursery chair until 6:30 am when I made him put her back in her crib.

Night 5- Awww... the weekend! Awwww.... Easton doesn't care, but she did sleep until 5:30 am! I nursed her right away and she went right back asleep until 9:00.

Night 6- Hot diggity dog! I think we are getting somewhere! Little Ms. Thang slept until 8:00 am. Holy bajesus! I am afraid to say anymore than that as I may jinks it!

Night 7- Ugh.... One step forward... Two steps backwards. Easton had no desire to go to bed last night. She usually goes down between 9:00 and 9:45 pm. Not tonight. She was bright eyed and bushy tailed until after 10:00. I think Josh and I where in bed by 11:15. Then she woke up in the middle of the night. I let her cry and she put herself back to sleep.

So I survived a week of sleep training. I must admit the first night I had to lay there and just let my baby cry my heart was breaking. All I wanted to do to is snatch her up and snuggle her. But I keep telling myself there will be times that I can not "fix" all her problems and she will need to learn those on her own. Sleep training doesn't happen in a week and by no means is Easton "trained", but she is heading down the right path and things are getting better. This will always be a work in progress.

I will leave you with some pictures of Easton in her Johnny Jumper. She loves it!

Good Morning!

Every morning we tell Easton "Good Morning!" and we rub her back to wake her up. Her response is always the same....

Even if she wakes us up. She always greets us with a big ol' smile!


And sometimes has located her pacifier.

This morning we let Daddy sleep in and had some Mommy-Easton time.


And last night we busted out a new toy. Watch out world she has wheels!

7 Months and Sassy Britches!

The title is Easton to a tee these days! Every day her more and more of her personality shows through and in this last month our little lady is become quite sassy. Seriously sometimes I think she acts too big for her britches! I love the determination, drive and ambition that is developing also. She is a truly a combination of Josh and I. With her fearlessness, stubbornness and cowlicks coming from her Daddy and her "my way or the highway" attitude, ambition and always gotta be busy traits coming from her Momma. This past month she as developed more and more into such a sweet little girl. She is a giggle box and is so stinking ticklish. Her laughter melts our hearts and her smiles make our day!

Nicknames: Easton Beaston- Nana, though sometimes she changes it up to peaston.
Ms. Easton- Josh and I both use this one
Dolly - Aunt Vern- aka Lexie Manning
Nosie Rosie- Me... she is so curious about everything.
Easton Blondell- I have been calling her this her lately. Phase? Maybe...

Holla!!!! We are finally in size 2 diapers! Seriously I thought we be potty training and she would still be rocking size 1.

Baby clothes suck! Easton is a little bit tricky these days. Some brands she can wear 6 months, but some she needs 6-9 months. Here is the kicker... some brands go from 3-6 to 6-12 months. Really! That is a six month gap. How about 6-9 months people. So the point is she is all over the place with clothes. Mostly we have been putting her in 6 months+, but will be going to 6-9 months + very very soon.

Oh Baby Food... how you have been such an adventure! The doctor gave us a go ahead on baby food at her six month check up so we have been hitting Gerber Stage 1 veggies and fruits hard for the past month! Easton has not had any allergic reactions or found anything she doesn't like. Her food schedule is as follows: 9 am Oatmeal and 1 container of fruit baby food; 12 pm 2 containers of baby food; dinner time (5:30-6:30 pm) 2 containers of baby food. We have decided not to increase her baby food intake until she bumps up to 8 oz. of boobie juice. Baby food should compliment boobie juice and not replace it. Right now we are still at one 7 oz bottle a day and she nurses in the morning and at bedtime. So basically she is consuming boobie juice 3 times a day... sometimes 4 on the weekends.

Chew, or should I say gumming like crazy! I am telling you there has to be a tooth coming in soon. This gal is gumming everything in reach.

As my previous blog said... She likes to move it, move it! Easton is so close to crawling. She also loves to stand and bounce up and down while you hold her. She is going to be such a busy little bee once she goes mobile.

Weight: 14 lbs. 7 oz. Height: 25 3/4" as of 2/11/11

Easton LOVES her bath time! Her favorite part... the wash rag! She loves to suck the water out of it and gum it!


This little pose is what we call free style. Normally she has her feet in the air and one hand reaching up to the sky. But the day I took her pictures she decided to tone it down a bit. Can you tell the flower is tickling her nose? Watch out Vogue... Easton Blondell maybe on your next cover!

The picture below is my favorite! It totally shows her personality. Curious and seriously cute. Quick note about the shoes. She would not keep them on. She would take them off and they would go straight to her mouth so I decided if you can't beat them join them. The socks came off and the shoes became a prop for the photo shoot.

Josh's 27th Birthday!

Josh's 27th Birthday recap....

We had cake and ice cream at our house on Thursday (his actual birthday). Easton loved the candles. As you can tell from the picture below she kept grabbing for them and Josh had to hold her back.


Then Saturday Josh's dad and step-mom came up to visit Easton and take us to lunch for Josh's birthday. Now this outing to Stix had a couple of firsts for Easton. She sat in a restaurant highchair for the first time. She did great! The fire and chief at Stix kept her very entertained.

Yep, she was reaching for everything!

She looks so tiny in this picture next to Josh.

We hit Cabelas before going back home and Easton got to sit in her stroller without the carrier for the first time. She loved it! She kept looking around the entire time. All the excitement wore her out, because she passed out in the stroller while we were cruising the gun section.

Will you be my Valentines?

One evening last week I shot some picture of Easton in her Valentine's Day onesie with a BIG red heart. I then uploaded them to Wal-Mart's photo website and made a 4x6 picture collage. I wrote Happy Valentine's Day in white at the top and put a red border around the pictures. It was adorable. I also did this for Halloween. The best part.... the prints are super cheap (I think I paid around $4 for 10 prints)... less than a greeting card.... and Easton is on it! Really what more could you ask for? So two thumbs up for collage prints at walmart!

Yeah... she is a flirt... look at that smile and wink!

Her shirt says " You can call me Sweetheart"

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Sunday since Josh was heading out of town for work on Monday. Josh and I exchanged cards and gifts. Then we gave Easton hers. A book and a Texas Longhorn sleeper. She loved the book... well... she really loved to put it in her mouth and gum it.

I like to MOVE IT, MOVE IT!

She likes to move it, move it! She likes to shake it, shake it! For the past week and half Easton has been trying to crawl. She can get up on all fours an rock back and forth. Sometimes she even lunges herself forward. There have been a couple of face dives, but she is a tough cookie and shakes it off. Our little has major attitude when she can't reach things she wants. Seriously this little lady starts to cry because she wants to move forward to grab it, but she just can't. It's pure frustration to her when she can't get to the objects just out of reach. Below are some of the pictures of her and her newly mastered tricks!

Having fun sliding on the table with Grandpa...


She was doing this while I was trying to take her 7 month pictures...



You see that ball in the corner... very right hand corner? Welp that is what she wanted and this is the face we got when she couldn't get to it. Total melt down..... followed by....

a nose dive of defeat.

Yeehaw!

Josh's little mini me is working on her cowgirl skills....