Alayna

We are sitting here with our fingers crossed that Kaia stays asleep. Any voices of experience are welcome. Kaia has gotten into a very bad night time habit. We do our whole night time rountine: eat, bath, pj's, eat and bed. She has been taking fewer naps during the day so she is ready for bed when we start the routine. She does great. It seems like she is out for the night and 20 to 40 minutes later she wakes up screaming and it usually takes 1 1/2 hours until she is finally back down again. Tonight she was asleep by 7:30 or 8pm. I just came downstairs (hopefully for the last time) at 11pm. We have let her cry, picked her up, not picked her up, feed her, checked diapers and repeated everything again and again. She is starting to become a mommy's girl. Poor Bryn will be trying to calm her and she will scream and scream. As soon as I walk in she stops and smiles. We have been contemplating the possibility of teething. She is drooling, chewing, sucking a lot, etc. We have just pulled out books tonight that we have not gotten to read with the move, etc. So we are diving into The No-Cry Sleep Solution. We have to ready Happiest Baby on the Block and possibily Babywise. I am very happy we got my girlfriend, Rachel's, hand-me-down baby books.

Aside from our night time issues, things are going well. The new furnace is in after a minor oil spill in the basement. We are trying to get through the final settling in. Kaia is only really taking one long morning nap and maybe two short (20-45 min) afternoon naps. So I am not getting much done during the day and the night schedule isn't allowing a lot either. Bryn has gone in a couple of days for various briefs, etc. He officially starts school next Monday. I have been in contact with a local Pilates studio and will be meeting with the owner on Friday. It is probably a ten minute walk from our house.

We are beginning to get out of town visitors. Bryn's mom has already been here once. My dad is coming up the day after Thanksgiving for a visit. Then Bryn's mom is coming back for a long weekend in December and my best friend, Leigh, is coming up in December too. We have some San Diego friends that will be on the east coast at the end of December so we are hoping to meet up with them too.

Our holidays are going to be mellow. We are staying here for the holidays. On Thanksgiving we are heading to Plymoth Rock. It is only about 1 1/2 hours away. We probably won't do a big feast that day since we are going to go to Plymoth Rock. We are thinking about cooking on Friday when my dad is here.

As for Kaia's new tricks, she is sitting with her hands forward on the floor so she is in a tripod position. I am right behind her just in case, but she is doing really well. When she is on her tummy she pushes herself up so high. She is so strong. And she is beginning to scoot herself around a little bit.

We have also gotten our webcam set up and have done a few video calls with Bryn's family. If you are interested in seeing Kaia via video let us know. If she is in a good mood we would be happy to show her off:)

We went back to the pediatrician yesterday. It was a follow up because we discovered on Friday that Kaia had thrush. So she and I both got medicine to get treated so we don't keep infecting each other. The Dr said that she looks pretty good. The appointment was also to make up for our horrible 4 month well baby. This time the Dr answered our questions, paid attention to Kaia and gave us information to leave with. Much improved from the first one we saw. While we were there we were told that Bryn and I should get our flu shots. Kaia is too little for one and it is suggested that we get them to protect her. I have never gotten a flu shot and have always avoided them. Not any more. I got the mist version. It protects against a larger number of strains of flu and lasts for a whole year. That also meant I felt like crap when I woke up this morning.

She is still asleep so it is time for us to get ready for bed. Happy Thanksgiving week to all of you:)