First Tooth!

Emerson popped her first tooth through today!  You can feel it, but not really see it, because she's all about sucking on your finger if you put it anywhere near her mouth, but not so much about opening wide and letting you look in.  Goodbye, toothless grins!  Hello, nursing pain!  Haha - we'll see.  So far I can't feel it.

She has mastered getting herself to a seated position from lying down, but she can't get back once she's up.  This makes for many trips to the crib as she's trying to put herself to sleep to help her lie back down.  She also, for the first time yesterday, pulled herself to a standing position on the side of the couch.  This girl will walk before she crawls, I swear.

That's all I wanted to document for today.  Just couldn't miss this very important milestone.

 (Note the bib to catch all the teething drool that seems to soak whatever she's wearing...)

Special (early, so early) mornings

The last few weeks Sam and Abi have been with my parents (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD) and I have had some special alone time with just Emerson.  I think this is really one of very few times in her life that it will be just us.  She kind of gets a raw deal, being the third one and NEVER being the focus of my attention, so this month (almost 6 weeks, actually) is really special.  

Today we had our last weekend morning together.  I've really come to love these mornings. We've started sleep training (more on that later), so recently she's been sleeping really well and waking up for the day at 6:00am sharp.  I'll take it, since it used to be in the 5's.  She comes in my bed and cuddles with me and nurses for about 30-40 minutes, and by that time my back is sore and she's re-awake, so we get up.  I make myself a cup of coffee while she plays on the floor in the living room, and then I enjoy my coffee and just watching her.  She loves anything with a tag, and can entertain herself for a good 30 minutes just pulling, chewing, and slobbering on random tagged toys.  When she starts to get fussy, I usually pull her up to nurse on the other side.  Thankfully, this corresponds to about the time my coffee kicks in, so I'm usually pretty happy and awake by then.  After that, she likes to stand on the side of the couch and play with the coasters, and then I can usually put her in her bouncy thing for 20-30 minutes or so while I FaceTime with mom, Meg, or Scott.  The last 2 days this has taken us til about 8am, and then she'll play a bit longer.  Around 8:15 she starts rubbing her eyes and getting cranky, and I can put her easily to bed (where she is right now).  Yesterday she slept over 2 hours and we'll see what today holds.  During the week her normal nap time is 9 or 9:30, but I'm wondering if this will change given her weekend schedule.  If it stays like this, it will work out perfectly for when the kids go back to school.  

Sleep training.  Ugh.  It's like saying a swear word to say that.  But, for all the horrible connotations it has, I have to say it is a necessary evil.  Up until about a week ago, Em was still waking up every night between 1 and 3am for a bottle.  I would stumble to the kitchen, pull out a bottle from the fridge that I had already made, and put it in the microwave.  For the 30 seconds it took to heat it up, I would rest my head on the counter and fall back asleep.  When the timer beeped, I would take the bottle out and stumble back to my bedroom where the princess would be fussing/ crying and waiting for me.  I would feed her the bottle which took anywhere from 20-30 minutes and then put her back in bed, then I would put the bottle back in the kitchen, stumble back to bed, and gratefully immediately fall back to sleep.  Except for the occasional times when I couldn't fall back asleep; those were awful.  Usually that one episode would take us through until about 5am, when she would wake up again.  In my sleep-deprived state, I would pray (literally, pray) that she would go back to sleep, and my prayers would usually be answered by making her quiet for 5-6 minutes and then making her cry again.  So we were up.  Ugh.  

About a week and a half ago, I decided that this was NOT. WORKING.  I was miserable during the day, taking naps while I pumped, and just chronically absolutely exhausted.  I have a whole new sympathy for patients who tell me they're tired.  It's the worst feeling ever.  Anyway, so I decided I needed a good night's sleep.  That night, she woke up at 1am, and I went upstairs so I couldn't hear her.  I came back down at 2, and she was back asleep.  She woke up AGAIN at 3am, and I went back upstairs until 4, at which time she was again asleep.  She woke up for the day at 5:30.  Not the "good night's sleep" I was hoping for.  And not the "sleep training" I planned on, it just kind of happened that way.  That day, I did some reading on "CIO/ Ferberizing" and decided I was going to implement it that night.  And wouldn't you know, she picked that night to sleep straight through the night with no wakings at all.  The mere threat of Ferberizing had her scared asleep.  It wasn't that easy though.  The next night she woke up at 1am, and I did the 5 minute check, the 7 minute check, and the 10 minute check.  By the time the next 10 minute check came, she had fallen back asleep.  Not too horrible.  From that point on, she would wake in the middle of the night (usually around 3am) and fuss for less than 5 minutes, and then put herself back to sleep.  Turns out she didn't need that bottle after all.  Last night she slept straight through (at least, I don't remember any wakings) and was up for the day at 6.  Again, I'll take it.  Let's hope it keeps up throughout our trip to RI and back.  Having a good night's sleep is SO much better.  For both of us.  I know it makes me a better mother - I honestly think I love her more after I'm well rested. =)

And with that, since she's napping, I guess I'll go down for one myself.  I know my time to do this is limited, since once the big kids get back the opportunities for napping will be essentially non-existent.  I'm loving this time with Emerson, but I do miss them.