Helen Claire Weekly

31 Weeks.  Helen Claire is doing so much so quickly that it is hard to keep up with these weekly posts.  She changes so much day-to-day.  I guess the things that really stick out this week are sleeping and eating.  We'll go in that order:

Sleeping has had its share of ups and downs this week.   We have tried Ferberizing a couple times, but when it hadn't worked right before Christmas, we decided it wouldn't be worth the struggle to implement it again right before going on Christmas vacation.  We knew she would be held and rocked while we were home, and we didn't want to keep people from loving on her while we were home.  Plus, we didn't want to keep everyone up with the Crying it Out portions of the night, either.  So, we really dug in our heels this week, after having a week to get back on schedule after Christmas.  Monday night was TERRIBLE.  Let's get something straight- we don't do strict crying it out.  We laid her down, in her crib, sleepy, but not totally asleep.  She is usually rocked to sleep at night.  Immediately after we left the room, she started screaming.  Not crying, screaming.  We went in every 2 minutes, then every 3 minutes, then every 5 minutes, then every 7 minutes... for an hour and half!!!  Misery.  Tuesday was a little better.  Last night, she was down in 5 minutes flat.  Tonight, about 25 minutes, but she only cried for maybe 7 or 8, and it was just fussing, not the really heart-breaking kind of cry.  I'm too scared to jinx it, so I'm not calling it yet, but we might have an independent sleeper on our hands.  Thank you, God, for patience, for helping Helen Claire learn to fall asleep, and for listening to us cry with her :)

Eating.  Homegirl can eat!  She has been getting more and more solid food, and she is happy about it.  Her menus now include sweet potatoes, apples, pears, peaches, prunes, and squash.  She also gets cereal, but that's nothing new.  The fun thing now is she knows what to do with the food.  Instead of kind of gumming the spoon, she opens up her little mouth and takes a good bite.  She never fusses about what's there.  She just eats what you give her.  So easy and sweet- love that girl!

Here are her pictures for this week... wish we could say they were better, but that's the point of the blog, right... to record our real life.  This is about as real as we get.

Refused to take a picture

Bribed with paper

Pitched fit when paper was taken away

Bribed with a book

Hid behind book

(To her credit, it is a Peek-a-Boo book.  Maybe she was just trying to play!)