24 weeks - HALLELUJAH!

Happy girl!

I am in a much better mood this week.  Evelyn is sleeping (knock on wood), and napping better than she ever has, too!  By Friday last week, we had reached the end of our rope.  I had a very trying week at work, Matt was exhausted from his fishing trip, and Evelyn was clearly tired and cranky, too.  I did a little research and decided to get Dr. Richard Ferber's book "Solve your child's sleep problems" from the library to see if we could make any improvements.  Sleep training is a hot-button issue for a lot of parents, so I'm afraid to even talk about it!  But, here I go...

Friday night, we read as much of the book as we could before bedtime, and we decided to give the Ferber method a try.  The principle is that you teach your child to put themselves to sleep, rather than rocking or nursing them to sleep.  That way, when they wake up during the night, they can put themselves back to sleep, too.  It took about 20 or 25 minutes to get Evelyn to sleep the first night (yes, I got teary-eyed when she was crying), but we were surprised that she proceeded to sleep through the night!  Then, she took a 1.5 hour nap on Saturday.  We thought to ourselves, "This can't be working already, can it??"  It was!  She has slept through the night every night since then, and she is doing much better with her naps, as well.  We are so grateful to be getting some rest, and the best part is that Evelyn is in a great mood when she's awake.  When she starts to seem cranky, we know she's ready for a nap.  The hardest part now is going to be adjusting our schedule to be home at "nap time", rather than having Evelyn snooze wherever we are.  Don't get me wrong - I am happy to make this kind of adjustment!

We also FINALLY finished the letters for the wall in Evelyn's room.  This never-ending project began back when I was pregnant, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

New wall letters in the nursery.  I'll get a better shot of the whole room for next week.

Here are a few other shots from the week:

Evelyn and Roscoe are best buddies!

We're trying to train her early to love music.  She loves to "play piano" with Mommy!

Greasy hair!  The oil we used for cradle cap didn't wash out very well.  Oops!

Our friend Melodie trying to decide which baby carrier they want for their baby (arriving in February)!  She looks like a natural, huh?

Shopping with Jenn at Hatley.  Evelyn enjoys her retail therapy.

Swinging with Momma after a hike.  So much fun!