The Gift

I haven't been posting to the blog because there isn't a ton to say.   We have settled into our routine, both daily and sleep schedules, and the latter continues to be a challenge.

 Here is an example of our schedule:

5:30 - Dinner
6:30 - Baths
6:45 - 7:15 - Books & Emma to bed in her room
7:15 - 7:45 - Books & Lexie to Bedin her room
9:00 - 9:10 - Emma's 1st wake, Christy or Matt goes to soothe her
10:30 - Matt to bed
11:00 - 11:10 - Emma 2nd waking, Christy to sooth her
11:10 - Christy to bed
1:30 -2:00 am Emma 3rd waking - Matt grabs Emma from her bed and puts her on the floor next to Christys side of the bed (on a crib mattress). Christy gives Emma a bottle.
3:30 - 3:40 am - Emma's 4th wake up - Christy soothes her (without getting out of my bed, yea!)
5:45 am -  6:00 am - Emma's 5th wake up (for the day) -  Matt gets up with her
7:00 am - Christy & Lexie are up

So you can see, its not perfect but it works for us. My DH is amazing too btw. He is such a trooper and has taken the brunt of 'figuring out' this night time schedule (I am horrible with lack of sleep). I couldn't have done this with anyone else.

Anyway, we had finally 'accepted' the night time schedule and then our world was rocked last night. I am having a hard time not tearing up just writing it.

she
slept
through
the
night

To be clear here...this is not a sleep through the night via the 'six hour' clause many books reference. I mean we put her to bed at 7 pm last night in her own bed and she didn't wake up out of her own bed until 5:45 am.  Note - there was no hint this was going to happen. No lead up to this. The example of getting up 5 times has occurred most nights since we have been home, including the night before last.

I am not sure why on 2/25/2012 it happened. I am calling it a huge gift from God.  A 'wink' from God to tell us that we can do this and things WILL get better.

Of course, Lexie was up last night from 2:30 - 3:30 but that is just par for the course of being parents of two, right?! :-)


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For those of you asking for pictures, here you go!!

Emma on the ice in MN
(Matt was so excited b/c the public park near my sisters house had this awesome rink!)

Lexie using her skates from Santa!

Daddy teaching Lexie to skate

Family Picture
(Skating is hard work - hence the crying from Lexie)

Mary, Lexie, Emma, and George the next am
(Cousins)

Playdate with our friends the Clarks
(Emma loved this box, she thought it was the best 'toy' in the house)

Lexie & Devin (Cousin) at the pool
(hint - this is what we do to get Lexie out of the house while Emma is napping in the afternoon!)

Next week we are off to Florida & Disney so should have some adorable pictures of the girls from there!!

The news

Today we had some good and some bad news....

The Good News
Grandma Lilley came over to babysit Emma & Lexie this evening so we could have a few hours off to play cards with our friends. The plan was to put Emma to bed and then sneak out for a few hours while they put Lexie down.  My parents came over a little early and brought a delicious dinner,...super nice. At bedtime my mom went to rock Emma and give her a bottle.   Here is where the good news comes in....Emma went ballistic. Seriously went crazy that it wasn't mom or dad putting her to bed.  SCORE!!!  We have both been loving this little girl to pieces and it kills us when she doesn't outwardly love us back. It is so hard when she doesn't recognize us when we walk in a room or seem to care when a stranger takes her from us.  This reaction to grandma rocking her was exactly what we have been waiting for and we were both ecstatic (sorry Grandma!!)!

The Bad News
About 4 mins after my parents arrived for dinner, Lexie started to cough & throw up.  At first I thought maybe it was gag reflex but after the 3rd time she threw up, we realized this was probably the stomach flu.  The norovirus has been going around so we think she caught it from someone this past week.  We just read all about it and it seems like it is very hard to keep from spreading...especially with a 1 year old in the house who puts everything in her mouth.  I can only assume we are all in for it.  I just pray we don't get it at the same time!  Needless to say,  with all the crying and throwing up, we sent my parents home and called our friends to let them know we would not make it to cards this evening.

I will leave you on a high note with a few pictures from yesterday.  We visited Matts' Great Grandma  - Emma & Lexie's Great Great Grandma- yesterday.  The trip went really well and we were able to meet up with Great Great uncle Lon as well.

 Great Great Grandma Gay and Emma

Great Great pushing Emma in her walker! They had a blast doing this around the apt!

 Great Great Uncle Lon & Emma goofing around (Emma really had an affinity for Uncle Lon!)

 The whole crew!  

Note: Great Great Grandma Gay keeps the apt pretty darn warm.  This is why Lexie is 1/2 naked in the photos. I can't remember why she was crying though!

Great Great Grandma Gay & Lexie on a 'walk' down her hallway

One month since Gotcha day!

We have had Emma in our arms for a full month! She is such a joy, we just feel so very lucky to be able to have in our family!

Here are a few pictures over the past week:

 Emma on her moose from Santa

Lexie is learning to share!!

 Emma after a meal! This girl loves to eat!

 Wearing daddy's Tigers hat

This is what we wake up to every morning, too cute!!

We are slowly getting used to her sleep situation. I wouldn't say its getting better...we are just figuring out how to make it work. There is no way around it, we just have to put in the hard work with her at night so she continues to attach to us. To know we are not going anywhere.  Every child challenges you in different ways, this is where I am still learning from this precious child!

We are also planning a few trips in the remaining 7 weeks of leave. Visiting family & maybe a trip to Florida to visit the sunshine. :-)