April Updates

* Paige is starting to sit independently! I snapped a few pictures of her during the last two weeks when she was mainly tripod sitting, but now she spends most of her sitting time upright and she is definitely getting stronger. She still falls over if she tries to grab something that's slightly out of reach, but she's been doing great. So far she's used her new sitting skill to ride the swings at the park and sit in the grocery cart at HEB. Since she's always gone to HEB strapped to my chest, it's fun to see her reaction to the store from the cart. For now she seems mesmerized by all the items, colors, and lights. She's absolutely silent during our trips so far and she would rather look around than play with her toys.


* Last night Paige slept through the night for the first time EVER! Now to clarify: to ME, sleeping through the night means 11-12 hours without waking and/or needing a feeding. Reese began sleeping through the night around 7 months old, but beginning around 3 or 4 months she would surprise us with a random quiet night here and there. We've had no such luck with Paige. It's hard to believe I've survived this long without a night of consolidated, uninterrupted sleep. I won't be holding my breath that she'll do it again tonight.

* Paige's nap time sleep was doing great a few weeks ago. I felt like we had finally fallen into a routine...then two weeks ago everything went out the window. Since Paige began sleeping on her tummy and sucking her thumb she's had no problems falling asleep. Two weeks ago, though, she turned into a rolly-polly during nap time and at night. Instead of staying on her tummy and snoozing, twenty or thirty minutes into her naps, she'd roll over onto her back and wake up. (She's a pro at rolling from belly to back, but she can't quite get all the way from back to belly yet--she ends up on her side.) What do we do? Leave her there and see if she can sleep on her back? Go in and roll her back over? A combination of both ideas didn't help matters and it wasn't until yesterday when she gave up the rolling that things may (?) be getting back to "normal."

* Paige had her 6 month follow up with the GI on Monday. He said she's looking great. She's gaining weight great and is even somewhere between the 10th-25th percentiles for her weight and height! She's still on medicine, but the doctor and I made a "weaning plan" for how to VERY slowly wean her from the reflux meds. He also said that "given her history with dairy" that we should avoid any foods with dairy for awhile. He said that if everything's going well and we want to be "aggressive" we could try giving her yogurt around 9 months, but that it may be better if we wait until she's closer to a year.

* Reese got a pair of sunglasses recently. Can you tell she picked them out? So stylish...

* Reese is developing a southern twang, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Yes, Kim and I sounded like little Brits after spending our youth in England, so maybe I'm being hypocritical...but it's driving me a little nuts. Everything has extra syllables and the letter a gets drug out forever. Favorite words that showcase Reese's twang include: that, spilled, and ouch. I'm not sure where it's coming from, school maybe? A true native Texan, I guess.