Schedules: Part 2

Thanks to some excellent feed back. I have started a new routine for Ryann. It started off a little rocky as I knew it would, but each day gradually got better.  We start the night off with a bath. She loves bath time so I like to do it right before bed when she is starting to get a little fussy! We have started putting Rice cereal into Ryann's food mostly just at night and we mixed it with bananas because she loves the bananas and doesn't love the rice cereal, then we gluttonly feed her, change her diaper, nurse her, put her to bed, and play her little mobile in her crib.

Night 1: Cried for an hour and fell asleep for 5 hours woke up and cried for another hour went back to sleep for an hour and a half woke up and slept the rest of the night with mom

Night 2: Cried for 10min and fell asleep for 6 hours woke up and cried for a half hour and went back to sleep for 5 hours

Night 3: Talk herself to sleep!!! Either woke up once and cried for an hour, or woke up twice and cried for like 10min went to sleep for 45min and woke up again and cried again for like 10min. I am not sure I was pretty out of it!

Night 4: Smiled at me and then went right to sleep! I heard her wake up once. She went to bed after 15-20min of crying. I checked on her and then decided to shut my door so Lucy wouldn't go out there in the middle of the night and wake her up. The next thing I woke up to was Penney and Ryann at my bedroom door. Oops sorry guys!! I guess I will have to leave my door open so I can hear Ryann wake up in the morning! I have just been so tired lately my body doesn't know how to sleep through the night either I keep waking up in the middle of the night even when Ryann isn't crying. I haven't gotten a good sleep for about 1 year now! So both Ryann and I are learning how to sleep through the night, but I am afraid my body will learn it faster than her and then I will be like Bryce and sleep through anything! He is such a heavy sleeper. He said he has to be to sleep through my snoring.

Night 5: Whined for 10min and went to bed. Woke up in the middle of the night and cried for 10min and went back to bed

Night 6: Whined for 15min and went to bed. SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!

It took her almost a week, but she did it!!! It is a good thing too her poor little voice is getting really raspy from all the crying. Poor thing, but I think getting a good night sleep will help her be a happy baby, and a happy baby= happy mommy= happy family!!!

In one of Bryce's online classes it was talking about sleeping. He found it to be really boring, but I found it to be very interesting and quite ironic actually, so I listened in on his power point that he had to listen to. It said the same thing that I had discovered and read for myself when it comes to putting a baby to sleep. Mainly that you should put the baby in their crib when they are drowsy, but not asleep because it is important for them to learn how to put themselves to sleep instead of always needing mom. Put them on a bedtime routine, even if they fight it their body will know that it is time for bed. Give them a security object such as a blanket or stuffed animal. When they wake up in the middle of the night it helps them know where they are and that they haven't just been abandoned. Night lights are great as well! One thing that I didn't know was that you get better quality of sleep before the hours of midnight. I know some people put their babies to bed at 7, and I contemplated doing that, but Ryann only sleeps for about 10hours at night and I don't want to wake up at 5 so I am going to settle putting her to bed between 8 and 9. I guess I am going to have to work on that whole early to bed early to rise thing, but it is interesting that they have proven that to be good for you.

7 months

• Ryann sits on her own really well although I still put pillows by her just to be safe. She likes sitting too. It is better than sitting in her bumbo because it is easier to reach her toys
• SHE FINALLY SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! It was kind of a hard adjustment, but so worth it!!
• She loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! In the morning I use to put that on and then go back to sleep. but now that she sleeps through the night I sleep better to so now I usually watch it with her. It is sad when you have all the songs memorizedand have seen most of the shows!!
• She also loves to play with cords and bags. Why do people always love the things that they can't have???
• She is starting to warm up a little to other people besides mom. She also likes to play with her cousins, Aunt Penney and Uncle Tommy, and Daddy!! But when she is tired and fussy she just wants mom
• We have started to notice that Ryann's bottom teeth are turning grey. The doctors don't seem to know what it is. They said to just watch them I googled it and it said it could do with her body having a hard time breaking down iron, or Megan said that Colton had it. and it could be that her teeth don't have enamal and that it is genetic either way it freaks me out and I want a second opinon so it looks like we will be heading to the dentist...
  
  

St. George

I was so excited for Ryann to meet some of my favorite people. One of them being her name sake. Of coarse she wouldn't let them hold her, but she was a pretty happy baby the whole time we were there. She even got to meet my cousins cute little baby Ollie. He is about 2 months older than she is, so he is crawling, but after she saw how much fun he was having crawling around. She started rolling around a lot more. I loved seeing my BCF, but saying goodbye always makes me tear up. I wish there was some way we could see each other more.

IT WORKS!!

Since we have dropped down to a one income family, money has been a little tight. We are basically living from paycheck to paycheck with not a lot of money left for leisure little own food and gas. I have always believed in the principle of tithing, and payed it with each paycheck sometime within the month, usually whenever I remembered to bring it to church, and if that meant the next month so be it. To me it wasn't that big of a deal as long as it got payed and I usually had enough money left at the end of the month that it didn't really matter when I payed it, but Bryce and I have found that lately that isn't always the case. If we don't pay it at the beginning of each paycheck there isn't enough money left over at the end to pay it. Paying tithing got a lot harder and a lot more complicated and we finally decided that you either believe in it or you don't. Well we believe and so we have decided that the first thing we do with Bryce's paycheck goes toward tithing. It seems to be a lot easier to remember to bring it to church too when you are in need of the blessings. We don't always know how we are going to pay the bills for that week because quite honestly the calculations don't always add up, but so far we have managed to get by. Our bills are all getting payed on time, we always have gas in our car, and food on our table. and recently Bryce got a new little side job at work where he gets payed time and a half plus overtime hours. I am so thankful to have Bryce as my husband he is such a hard worker and good leader for Ryann and I (everyone really) I am also thankful for the blessings of paying your tithing. IT WORKS!! I am not posting this to try to preach to anyone, but myself. I want to look back when hopefully Bryce and I are in a better financial situation then we are now and remember how very blessed we are.

Pierce Ears

 When I first found out that I was going to have a girl I immediately decided that I was going to get her ears pierced right after she had all of her shots. I thought if Bryce wanted to circumcise our boys (not that I disagreed with him) then I could pierce our girls ears. I mean when it comes down to it, it's really all for looks anyways right?? Plus with a name like Ryann I wanted to make her as girly as possible!! I heard that when they are a baby is a good time to pierce their ears because it doesn't hurt them as bad and they are less likely to get infected. But then when she was born and what some doctors say was old enough to get her ears pierced, I had a moral dilemma, and then I saw this picture on facebook. I don't know if this is a picture of a real girl, and it's not like I was going to do anything drastic like this, but it got me thinking... My little Ryann came down to this earth to get a body and to use her own agency, who am I to make that decision for her and put holes in her little body, not that it is a bad decision  I just think it might be a decision that I want her to make. What do you guys think???

mamamamamamama

Ryann is such a mommy's girl! Sometimes it can get kind of annoying, but I keep telling myself to enjoy it, because soon enough she will probably be a daddy's girl. I don't know of any kid that perfers me over Bryce. He can already get her to laugh harder than I can, but she likes me to hold her especially when she is tired.  When some else is holding her, she will just look at me and say mamamamamama and squirm to get closer to me. Although some people have called her spoiled for being a mama's girl, I have read that it is rather commen especially at this age so people can just shut it!! The one thing that is cute however is that whenever I say mamamama to her she will look at me and smile real big.

messy eaters

Like father like daughter...

Ryann has now eaten apples and carrots and seemed to enjoy both of them...

or does she???

The other day Bryce and I got some subway for lunch. He ordered a meatball sandwhich and the lovely subway peeps were kind enough to make Bryce's sandwhich extra saucy. Ryann and I were eating outside when we heard Bryce call for help. I beggged him to let me take a picture of him. I told him he looked just like a picture of Ryann that I had taken the other day of her eating carrots. He would not allow the picture! He said that it is cute on baby girls, but not on grown men

so just imagine this on a 27 year old!!

Schedules

I had mixed feelings about starting Ryann on solids on the one hand I was excited to nurse less especially since she was teething (and biting) but on the other hand I was nervous about starting something new and  potentially messing up Ryann's schedule. Ryann was an eats to sleep kind of a girl. I heard that was bad, but what can I say I am new, and it is easy to fall into bad habits. From the time she was a newborn eating was always a bother and it would just put her to sleep although once she got the sucking down that was all she wanted to do. Ryann quickly fell into a routine which consisted of play for 2 hours, eat for about a 1/2hour and, sleep for 1 and 1/2hours. She took 3-4 naps during the day and slept 10-12 hours at night (although she wasn't sleeping through the night yet) At Ryann's 6 month appointment I addressed my concern for Ryann not sleeping through the night, but I already knew that she was going to tell me that I would have to let Ryann cry herself to sleep, and maybe that is why I didn't want to address the concern earlier, but with Ryann teething she is sleeping less through the night and with her eating solids and getting older her schedule is all mixed up and if you know me at all you will know that I love a schedule!!!!  Since things are changing and there is nothing I can do about it I decided that I am going to try babywise and let Ryann cry herself to sleep. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I don't know how well I will do letting my baby cry for hours before she finally falls asleep, but I do think that it is important for her to learn how to fall asleep on her own! Sometimes a mama's got to do what a mama's got to do, but if any of you have any advise on how you put your little ones to sleep or what kind of schedule they are on I would love to hear it!!!

The Love of a Puppy

One day Bryce left home to run some errends. A patient puppy waited very intently for him to come back home. With her ears straight up and eyes fixed on the door she can't seem to concentrate on anything else!

Then finally she hears the sound of a motorcycle pull into the garage. Wagging her tail at 100 mph she wonders... "Is it really him?"

Yes it is!!!  Her patience has finally payed off. Her dad has come home at last. So excited to see him she pins him in the chair and greets him by giving him a big hug and kissses

Then happy once again she can finally relax and cuddle up on his lap making sure he won't leave her again!!