Watch Me Grow - Eight Weeks

So it turns out the new "strategy" I had put in place last week to help with naps was a big failure. I gave it a go for a good 5 days and then had a complete melt-down. There were lots of tears, more mine than hers. I will cover more details when I write a follow up to The Art of Napping, but for now I have scrapped all napping strategies and am just focusing on her getting more sleep. I wanted to have every nap happen in her crib, but that was wasting too much time and energy trying to get her to sleep up there every time. If she doesn't fall asleep within a reasonable amount of time I am fine to have her sleep in the swing or even on my chest (and it's a great excuse for me to take a nap too!) - as long as she gets some shut eye I am fine with it. We have been learning the hard way that if she doesn't sleep during the day, she doesn't sleep at night. And I am loving the fact that she only wakes up once per night now within the 12 hours that she is asleep, so lord knows I want that to continue.

Anywayyyyy enough about sleep! We had an EXCELLENT breakthrough on her eight week birthday - we had our first car ride without ANY crying!! This is huge for us. I don't really go out with her that often (see above nap issue) in the car and whenever I do it is usually a huge disaster. The girl cannot stand to have a dirty diaper and when she does and we are in the car she starts screaming bloody murder. A couple of weeks ago I went to Babies R Us with her and had to pull over twice to change her diaper. The store is 7 miles from our house. Needless to say it was stressful and exhausting. With our big trip to New York approaching quickly I have been really nervous about all of the time that we will be spending in the car. But this weekend gave me hope! Granted, we were only in the car about 10 minutes each way, but she didn't let out one peep the whole time - and on the way back she even had a dirty diaper!

Oh happy day!

There have been even more smiles and a lot more "talking". We do a lot of tummy time and she is such a rockstar! Her neck is getting so strong I can't believe it. I've never felt more proud of someone for lifting their head up (or burping or pooping for that matter) - I can't imagine what it's going to be like when she starts rolling over, crawling, walking, talking....ahh! :)