A Few "Firsts"

About a week and a half ago, I realized that gliding was no longer enough to get Audrey to sleep. I noticed that I was also having to jiggle, rock, swing, tap my leg, or do some other motion along with gliding to get her to sleep. Even when I did those things, Audrey still cried in my arms until she just gave in to sleep. I told Evan that I felt like I spent most of my day trying to put Audrey down for a nap. Also, Audrey had not let Evan put her to sleep in a couple of months nor would she let him comfort her when she woke up, so it was all on me! Well, I decided one night after Audrey woke up after a 40 minute sleep cycle that instead of getting her out of her crib and rocking her back to sleep, I was going to stay there with her but keep her in her crib. I stood by her crib and patted and kissed her and picked her up a few times. But basically she stayed in her crib till she fell back asleep. Evan came in after I had been in her room for about 10 minutes. He was good moral support. It took almost an hour but it worked! She finally fell asleep! Let me be clear-I did not let her "cry it out" because I stayed in there the whole time, kept my hand on her, talked to her, and picked her up when she was really upset. (If you have ever read The Baby Whisperer, I did a hybrid of her "Pick Up/Put Down" method.) After that night, I tried it again the next day during her afternoon nap. Again it took almost an hour but she didn't cry as much this time and once again, I stayed in the room with her the whole time and stood right by her and patted, kissed, and talked to her to keep her calm. It only took those two times and since then she has mostly let us put her down in her crib and goes to sleep on her own. She even lets Evan put her down for the night and she lets him comfort her back to sleep if she wakes up too soon!! Sometimes we have to go in there a couple of times if her paci falls out or she rolls over on her belly and she gets pressed up against the rails. She doesn't like that too much! :-) But mainly when I put her down, I usually swaddle her legs, give her the pacifier, give her a kiss, and tell her I love her and then leave the room! I listen to her on the monitor and if she gets too fussy I will go back in and kiss her again or put my hand on her chest to comfort her. We are so proud of her and so happy for that she can go to sleep on her own now!
Another first-I had tried rice cereal with Audrey back in July and then stopped because she wasn't interested. So, I tried again two weeks ago and she still didn't show that much interest but I introduced bananas to her also. I gave her the Gerber organic ones and she gave me some funny looks with that and didn't really eat much of it. She seemed to get a diaper rash after that too so I stopped giving it to her. I got a kit to help me make her baby food so I made some organic zucchini for her and she also didn't like that much either. Then I noticed that all the rice cereal and the bananas had really messed up her system and I was concerned. ( I don't know what I was thinking giving her rice cereal AND bananas in one week! Those are two of the foods in the B.R.A.T. diet!) I called the pediatrician last weekend and she suggested prunes and some other things for Audrey. I tried prunes last weekend and that was hilarious! She certainly did not enjoy those. I also bought some Happy Bellies organic oatmeal cereal with probiotics that my friend, Lindsley, had said worked for her son, Zaden. I finally tried that and that was what she needed! Tuesday night Audrey was back to normal again and I was relieved! The rest of the week I decided just to give her the rice cereal in the morning after I nursed her. She was still kind of pushing it out of her mouth and not swallowing most of it....until yesterday! Yesterday morning I could actually hear Audrey swallowing and I noticed that there was less on the spoon when I pulled it out of her mouth! I also noticed that she wasn't pushing the food back out anymore! It looks like she is starting to lose the tongue-thrust reflex. Today, was the first time that she ate all her cereal! She probably ate about half a tablespoon. (I have been making less of it because I noticed I was wasting a lot when she didn't finish it.)
So, next week I may go back to the zucchini again. I still have several cubes of it frozen in the freezer or I may try something else. I hear babies love carrots and sweet potatoes so those might be next!