Sweet Dreams!!

So, our little chica has been working on some sleeping issues lately. This makes a week that we’ve been working on this. Mommy was about to pull her hair out, so some changes were implemented in the casa de la Joyner. Our nights are SOOO much better. Who knew that moving a bedtime earlier could make night wakenings go away?! Doesn’t make sense, but biologically, apparently it does. So, our angel starts her final nursing around 6:00-6:30. She eats for 45 minutes to an hour, usually. The, she usually wakes around 9 or 10pm for a 20-30 minute feed, and then not a peep from her until morning, sometime shortly after 6am. And, she goes right to sleep at night without a fuss, so that’s nice. Everyone is more rested and in a better mood!

Now, the naps are still challenging, but I expected that. Today has been her best day so far though! For her first nap, she “protested” as I walked out of her room, but that was it, and then slept 1 hr 15 minutes. The 2nd nap she took started out good—only protested maybe 1-2 minutes, if that, but only slept 25 minutes. Now, we’re on our 3rd nap. She was irritated for maybe a minute, but then started playing, and then a few minutes later, silence, so another nap! Yeah!! Anyway, I’m trying to stay consistent, so this will work for all! Also, now when she’s awake, she is much more pleasant! Now, she’s not as wired as she was before. She’s calmer, not as clingy, plays well, etc. I now think that she was chronically overtired, and that was becoming very evident over the last few weeks. So, she’s starting to feel better, and so are Mommy and Daddy. Of course, Daddy’s not so sure about the 6am wake-up time, but she is just as happy as can be, and I take her to our bed to help wake up Daddy! haha! As long as we can go to bed on time as well, six is just great with me!

So, Abriella’s Papaw came this weekend. (Note to others: DON’T start sleep training before a grandparent comes…! We held him off and he was a fairly good sport about it, but not without a few comments here and there!). Anyway, we had a great visit with him, including a round of disc golf that Abriella enjoyed as well. It sure was a toasty weekend though!

Abriella is talking more and more, and saying several words. Let me try to remember all the ones that she is saying right now. Duck, quack quack, water, diaper, mama, da-da, daddy, thank you, hot, car, clap clap (sounds a lot like her quack quack!). She also signs more, all done, and duck. She also waves, claps, and raises her arm like an elephant trunk. I feel there are some more words, but I’m drawing a blank right now. Anyway, she’s so smart!

She doesn’t seem really interested in walking yet. She is such a good crawler and cruiser and climber…but, I guess she figures that’s good enough for her at this point! She’ll do it when she’s ready, and probably when we aren’t expecting it!

Anyway, I think I’ll stop and try to get some pictures up, but I thought I’d put the post up for now, while our sweetie is still sleeping!