Baby top tooth is in

And she has been trying to use me as a teething toy!

She has been having a hard time sleeping the past few nights. Hopefully better tonight. 

Today she pulled up to stand by the crib rail. After two tries and careful thinking she figured out how to lower herself to sit!

Baby crawling!

Meili crawled three slow and measured hand steps yesterday. She had been rocking back and forth for over a month, and doing the hands and knees thing over my thigh (maybe for added security). I placed a doll beyond her reach and she went for it! No hesitation. Just care. 

I am so proud of my baby girl! 

She has been extra clingy the past four days, wanting to pull up to downward dog and standing by grabbing on to my shirt. She seems to be wanting a lot of that!

Infant swim lessons at Kittanning YMCA

Meili's first swim lesson and fourth time in a pool. She loved it even more than the last time. The water is warm and she is comfy. She kicked and scooped like crazy. And kept putting her face in the water. She even blew a bubble. At eight months of age I think that is quite impressive. It's a an hour round trip to this heated pool YMCA and it's worth it because the water isn't chlorinated hardly at all (maybe not even). 

Baby sleeping in car!

We put Meili in the car for a 1.5 hr trip and she fell asleep immediately and stayed asleep the entire ride. We are now on the way home and she fell asleep immediately - let's see if this lasts. I credit dr jay Gordon for helping her learn to sleep. http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html/comment-page-10#comments

Crying in arms method: baby sleeps through the night!

We had attempted this method at six months but couldn't follow through and now I look back and think maybe Meili wasn't ready. Because when we tried it again three days ago, it worked! 

I'm uncomfortable about the cry it out method and was glad to learn about this gentle method of helping baby learn to fall back asleep by herself when if woken during the night. I followed dr jay Gordon's guideline which he recommends for babies one year and up.  The first three nights I put her down half awake after her 11pm feed and if she cried I would pick her up and hold her until she was half asleep again then put her down again. No nursing though. 

She cried for up to an hour the first time and after that fell right asleep. Second night was less crying and she would wake and put herself back to sleep with a little whimper. It was incredible. She seems like she is trying hard to sleep and with a little crying she has managed to do so. Six hours straight! Let's see if this sticks.