Life has taken over

I haven't been on in a few days..things have been busy.

We recently went to KidCity, if you have never been you MUST go! Gianna has a blast. I have taken her there before when she was just learning to walk on her own and while she had a good time, this time was better. The basement is meant for babies-3 "Toddler Sea Caves". There are bubbles, slide, things to climb, caves to go in, mirrors and more. Gianna went up the stairs and down the slide more times than I can count, and she can do it all on her own! The 1st and 2nd floor are for a bit older kids 3+ I would say but she still tried to explore all the numerous rooms fighting her way through big kids. I have a few more pictures on facebook. Its such an awesome place


The annual daffodil festival is coming up (YAYAY!) and I took Gianna to get her picture taken in the flowers. My parents did this with me every year until I was old enough to protest and be a crabby teen lol. Gianna's picture last year didn't go to well. I laid her on a blanket on the ground and tried to take a few cute itty bitty baby shots but she just cried. This year was much better. She smelled the flowers, tried to kiss them, tried to pet them and then tried to pick them (which btw is illegal) But I got happy toddler pictures so hopefully its a start to a good tradition. The actual festival is this weekend and I can wait!

My class schedule for summer and fall is all set, and I'm due to graduate a semester early (fall 10) which is awesome! This summer I am taking Psych-Behavior Analysis(major elective) one session and American Government(gen ed) the second. Fall is going to be a tough semester for me but a productive one. 3 Psych requirements: Crit Reading and Writing, Stats and Behaviors and lastly Research methods. Then a Physics class with a lab. YIKES!!! But after this I am left with one gen ed, 3 major courses and a field study (summer 10) so I will have 18 credits of anything I want to fill in with. I would like to minor in Art but sadly I am only allowed to take 6 of my Art transfer credits in for a minor. I had 18 or so credits of Art and only 6 count UGH! We will see though. If I don't minor in art I will be working on a certificate program in Applied Behavior Analysis that specializes in Autism. I am super excited about that so it may win over Art.

Well that's all I can think of for now.

Stubborn Sleeper

Let me start with a little background info.
Me: crib sleeper from day one, STTN (7pm-7am )at 6 weeks old and a whooping 15lbs
Gianna: Bassinett sleeper till 2-3 months then Co-sleeper STTN (5 hour blocks) sparatically

Gianna had been a fairly good co-sleeper waking up only a few times to nurse and then drift back to sleep. She also had it in her head that cribs are lined with broken glass (or any other painful substance) and refused to even go near one. She napped in her swing and slept in my bed. Since January-ish she has bad either a cold, new teeth or a growth spurt at least once a month and has thrown off her sleep fully and she was sleeping like a newborn, up every 2-3 hours and WANTING to nurse. I had to call it quits. I don't really like or believe in CIO so I started reading the "No Cry Sleep Solution". My goal was not so much to get her to sleep all night in her crib and stop co-sleeping but more to actually get some sleep. I did/do want her to sleep at least some of the night in her crib though. I NEED to be able to have me time/homework and a toddler sleeping on my bed does not give me that option. It doesnt help that she LOVE to fight sleep. Any excuse to keep even one eye open and she take it.

This was my general goals:
Week one: daily time in her crib to learn that it is not a painful place.
Week two: goal to nap in crib (nurse/rock/music to sleep then place in crib, when cry repeat untill had decent nap)
Week three: goal to sleep 1+ hours in crib, after 12am co-sleep if crib is not working
You get the picture, this wasn't going to be an over night process. I knew it would envolve me losing a few more hours of sleep to gain more sleep in the long run. But surpizingly it has been going great!

Week one turned into two days. After that naps just happened. Once in a while she'll need an extra shh or pat on the back to calm her back to sleep after placing her in the crib. After one week of working on nights (day one took 2 hours to get her out, day two 90 mins...)she will "sleep" in her crib from 7ish till 12ish then nurse and come into my bed. Then wake at 7am. The reason I say "sleep" is the past two nights 7-8ish has been me placing her in the crib at 85% alseep and shhing her till she is out. As I get maybe 4 steps away from the crib she screams. At first I would go back and calm her again. Well last night I after mulitple attemts at this I said forget this lets see what happens if I walk down stairs. I told myself I wasn't CIO just giving her a chance to calm herslef first. Well I get down stairs and silence. Then a few mintures later " WAH...........wah...........................mama?........" She kept this up but there would be 5-30minute breaks. Come to find out the little bugger was standing at her crib rail, resting her head on the bar, sleeping until she had the engery to call for me and the sleeping again. Mind you the calling for me was in no way crying or distress, just plain grumpy that I was not holding her contantly. She kept this up from 7:30 till about 9 when on the monitor there was a faint thunk and I'm pretty sure she flopped onto the matress and gave into sleep. Now if that's not stubborn I dont know what is!

I think the srping weather helps her sleep better as well. She has a very high metabolism and is spirited to say the least. The warmer weather lets her burn off more steam outside. She LOVES the outdoors and I'm sure we will be spending tons of time out there as long as we dont get anymore freak snow squals!

About Time

So I decided it was high time a create a blog....I can vent and y'all can get updates on the crazy life of baby and me.

Where to start?? Well Gianna is a little over 13 months now. Here are some of her latest accomplishments

~running

~eating 99.9% table foods (minus anything with eggs...someone is allergic)

~climbing
~has 8 teeth

~Signing :mama, more, puff(she made up her own sign for this), milk, all done, water, dog, cheese, strawberry (in her own way), night night, diaper/potty

~talking: mama, nana(nurse), achie (formerly baba for bobchie/grandma), ampa, doggy, baby, nanana(banana), ees(cheese), puff, oh uh, tad (her singing frog), byebye, night night, nose, ducky, hi, no, glasses (randomly this morning she pointed to my mom's glasses and said it)

~find her nose/eyes/hair/belly/teeth when asked

~Goes potty first thing in the am on the big girl potty and will tell me 50% of the time that she has gone in her diaper

~still nursing! :) I'm so happy that we have made it this far!

She's one smart cookie! She also know how to throw fits and bed time has been a struggle. She was waking up way way too many times at night so I have been trying the "No Cry Sleep Solution" book and so far pretty good. I cant say that there are no tears because 90% of her sleep problem is just behavioral and would rather be held the whole night. But seeing as I have things that must get done it ain't happening kid.

I'm still in school. This new school is not what I had expected....I don't think anything will ever compair to Gallaudet but its an education and thats what counts. I'm majoring in Psych and after this semester I only have 3 semesters left (as long as I do summer school as well). I'm ready to be done with school.....I like some of my classes but I just don't like school....never have. I'm kind of working as well. I nanny a little boy Gianna's age a few days a week and am hoping to find another nanny job this summer. It brings in some money, I can keep Gianna with me and I love kids. I can't say its always easy because lets be real 2 in diapers can be rough! Be he is a good kid and Gianna loves him to bits!

Well I think thats it for tonight......

Here are a few new pics

Gianna at Coco Key~she LOVES the water


Look at those top teeth