Like a Dream

Lily's new sleep habits are worth a high five.

Lily had her six-month check up earlier this week (I know, we couldn't believe it, either). She was given a clean bill of health, and she received four shots in the chubby legs for her trouble. Our baby is now 15 lbs, 9 ozs, which puts her in the 45 percentile for weight. Her head circumference (an important measurement, to be sure) is in the 35 percentile, and her length of just under 25" places her squarely in the bottom 20% of her peers (no surprise there).

While speaking with Dr. Boe about Lily's development, we got talking about her sleep habits. Specifically, we discussed the fact that though she'd been sleeping fairly well in bed with us, she still wholeheartedly refused to spend any time in her crib. Additionally, sleeping "fairly well" in bed with us meant that she would wake up at least two times a night...and Katie would nurse her back to bed. Dr. Boe told us we have a window between 4-7 months to get her to sleep well by herself, and he encouraged us to try again with her crib. Though Katie had been very reluctant to let Lily cry in her crib to that point, we left with a renewed determination to make progress on the sleeping front...though that didn't mean we were going to let her cry herself to sleep...

That night we did our usual routine: bath, books, and bed. But this time, dad was solely responsible for the latter two so that breast milk was not an option. After Lily's favorite books, The Noisy Farm, Where is Baby's Belly Button?, and That's Not my Puppy, we retired to her room where I rocked her until she was visibly sleepy. Then, as I had done so many times before, I lowered ever so slowly onto her crib mattress for what I was sure was to be a veritable fireworks display of vocal protest. With Katie downstairs monitoring the monitor, I retreated to our bedroom and turned on ESPN, determined to stick to the plan of reassuring Lily after five minutes of crying, then ten, etc. As expected, before I could even get the score of the game, her wails filled the room...and the five minute allotment. Staying true to the plan, I went in and retrieved her, rocked her gently and talked quietly to her, promising that she was all right and her parents did truly love her (though I don't think she believed me). When she had settled down, I returned her to her crib, and the crying resumed. As I sat on my bed attempting to watch the baseball game for the second time, I checked the clock for no other reason but to know when the ten-minute interval would be up...and then an amazing thing happened. The crying got softer. Then it slowed. Could it be true? Could our daughter be falling asleep by herself? Lo and behold, it was true. Little Lilian's crying stopped within about a minute of her being put down for the second time. This was truly newsworthy. And even more amazing, our baby has consistently slept in her crib for the entire past week...both at nighttime and nap time. How? We don't know. Why? We're not asking. We're not looking a gift horse in the mouth. The only catch...dad is the only one who can put her down. So nighttime duties have largely switched from mom to dad. And Lily has in a small way switched from a little baby to a little girl. And we couldn't be more proud.

Vacation, Baby!

This past week Lily took her first big trip and had a wonderful time! She was a perfect angel the entire trip, starting with the airplane ride all the way to our arrival home at our back door. Lily, Mommy, and Daddy traveled across country to Scottsdale, AZ for Mommy's Association of Luxury Suite Directors Conference. We stayed at the very fancy and beautiful Hyatt at Gainey Ranch, which included a professional golf course, 10 pools (Lily's favorite part), and a lot of heat! We arrived late Saturday night and had all day Sunday and part of the day Monday to enjoy each other before mom went off to meetings. As you can see from the pictures, Lily had fun playing in the water with her parents. As she splished and splashed, she hummed a cute little tune. After all the excitement during the day, Lily was tuckered out and happily went to bed each night without a fussy moment the whole trip. The best part of our little getaway was that Dad and Lily got to go with Mom on her tours of the venues, which included a posh dinner and free drinks. We received so many compliments on how well behaved our child was, especially after our bus ride to U.S. Airways Center which had no air and lasted more than a half an hour. Everyone, adult and baby, was miserable, and we did everything in our power to keep her occupied. Luckily, we made it there before we all melted and before Lily could have a melt down. While Mom was at her very informative sessions, Dad and Lily took strolls around the grounds of the hotel and went for a few dips in the pool. The hotel was so beautiful and was surrounded by so much green and flowing water that it almost made you forget that is was a cool 110 degrees. Everywhere you turned there was the sound of flowing water, flowers, palm trees, and green. The view from our room was incredible, it was so nice that the hotel even used it to take a picture that can be seen in their brochures. We joked with some of our friends from the conference that Lily has now been spoiled and she will not stay anywhere less than a four star hotel. In addition to our friends that we made at the conference, Lily attracted a lot of attention from the hotel staff as well. The concierge office wanted to see her everyday and by the end of the trip everyone from the conference and hotel staff was stopping by to say hello. She, in true form, smiled on cue and managed to be at her cutest. All in all, it was a wonderful trip and it was so nice to have bonding time as a family with no stresses of work, errands, dogs, or anything else but Lily to worry about it. We love our little traveler and can't wait to have many more fun experiences like this together!