Shocked!

After a sucky Friday night, Brooke slept straight through the last 2 nights! Well, pretty much anyway. Saturday evening, Doug's parents had their annual New Year's party, which started at 5pm. I had originally planned on being home around 9 to get the kids to bed, but Brooke ended up taking a late nap from 7-7:30 because she missed her late afternoon nap. So we ended up staying a little later and got home around a quarter to 10. She was asleep by 10:30 and she didn't wake up until 6 and then I just gave her blanket to her and she went back to sleep until 8. Then last night she was in bed at 9. She woke up fussing around 1:30, I think it was, and again I just gave her blanket to her and she went back to sleep! She fussed again around 7, but didn't fully wake up and here it is about 20 minutes until 8 and she's still sleeping : ). So I think that's 4 nights out of the last 9 nights that she's slept straight through! Dare I say that maybe she's getting back in the groove of things, slowly? I sure hope so! It would be really nice if she's consistently sleeping straight through on a regular basis by the time she's a year old : ).

Another sucky night

I should have known that Brooke would not sleep as good last night as she did the night before : P. She went to bed at 8:30 and woke around 9. Gave her her blankie and she went back to sleep. I went to bed a little after 10 and was woken up by her at a couple minutes until midnight. I tried giving her the blanket, but she was having none of that. So I picked her up and snuggled her back to sleep. Laid her back down and of course she woke up 5 minutes later. By this time it was going on 12:30. I decided to see if she wanted a bottle. She ended up drinking about 4oz. Got her back to sleep and laid her down and she woke AGAIN. We did this 3 more times and she FINALLY went to sleep and stayed asleep around 2am. Then I woke to her AGAIN at 2:30...she let out a little cry like something scared her or something (bad dream?). I didn't get up right away and she ended up just getting her blankie and going back to sleep on her own. I woke at 8 and thought she was still sleeping, but when I got up and looked at her, she was just laying on her belly, eyes wide open, sucking on her thumb quietly. LOL. As soon as she saw me, she got a big smile on her face. And well...that made the sucky night worth it. Almost....lol. I swear to you, she slept better when she first came home than she does now and I can't figure it out!!!

New Header!

I made it myself at http://www.picnik.com/ (VERY cool site!). What do you think of it? : ) I do need to get a better pic of Zachary on there...that one is a picture of a picture, but it will do for now.

I also just wanted to tell you that Brooke slept for almost 12 hours straight last night! She went to bed a little after 9 and woke up around a quarter to 9 this morning. I woke up around 5:30 this morning and couldn't believe it when I realized that she hadn't been up AT ALL. I can't believe she didn't even wake up shortly after she went to bed because lately she does that every night (except last night!). I'm not expecting her to sleep straight through again tonight....but it would be very nice ; ).

And this just goes to show you that what a baby eats before s/he goes to bed does not necessarily mean they will/won't sleep straight through. Normally she drinks about 5oz. before going down for the night, but last night she only took 3.5 before going to sleep and I couldn't get her to wake up to eat anymore. So there ; ).

Brooke's 9 month check up

Yesterday afternoon Brooke had her 9 month visit. She weighed in at 14lbs. 14oz. and the nurse measured her at 27in. (but I think she's more like 26.5in.). Her head was, I believe, 46cm. Those measurements put her in the 10th percentile for length and not quite on the chart for her weight or her head. She's a long little thing!

Remember last week I posted about her synagis appointment and I was a little concerened that she'd only gained 5oz. in 4 weeks? Well, yesterday's weight put her at a 4oz. gain in one week. So no worries anymore (at this point, anyway) : ). Her next synagis appointment is on the 4th and hopefully she'll have another nice weight gain : ).

The doctor was pleased with her development : ). No concerns at this point! Poor baby had 3 shots. She was pretty fussy last night, but I think it had more to do with the fact that she didn't get much napping time yesterday.

Her sleeping habits are really sucking these days! For the longest time there I thought she was going to start sleeping through the night consistently, but that went out the window over a month ago. She now wakes at LEAST once a night 9 times out of 10. Sometimes she goes right back to sleep and stays asleep and other times I'm up with her for an hour or more trying to get her to stay asleep. She isn't fussy when she wakes up, so I don't know what the deal is. Sometimes she seems hungry and will drink some of a bottle, but other times not. It's extremely frustrating, though. She slept through the night Saturday night for the first time in a LONG time and I got pretty excited, but it seems it was a one time thing : P. Last night I was up from 1 to 2 with her. She actually woke again at 2:30, but surprisingly went back to sleep without my help. I just wish I could figure out what the deal is!

So I uploaded some pictures and they uploaded out of order (not that it really matters, I guess).

Ryan drew this the other day. He loves to draw and write on his Doodle Pro, but not on paper : /.
E.T.A. - I wrote the word "snail", not Ryan...he can write, but not *that good yet : ).

Brooke after we got home from her appointment yesterday. She was wiped out.

Ryan had crazy hat day at school yesterday. He did not already own a "crazy hat" and I wasn't going to buy one just for this. Then I was in the craft section at Walmart the other night and saw these foam visors ($0.78) and sticky foam things ($1.97) and thought that would be perfect : ). Of course I had to get the sports balls for him ; ). And this shirt is also from Walmart (got it a couple weeks ago)...SO fitting for him. It says "Any Game Anytime". LOL.


Brooke on her hands and knees the other night. She used to not be able to hold this position, but she can now! Probably won't be long before she figures out how to motor that way, lol.

We're in for it now!

Brooke learned how to army crawl a few days ago and each day she's been utilizing it more and more. LOL. On Sunday she was going after the dog at Doug's brother's house when we were there for the Steelers game and she likes going after her big brother's bowling pins, lol. And Friday night she got up on her hands and knees for the first time and rocked for about 30 seconds. She was SO proud of herself! It won't be long now and she really will be in to everything!!

I'll leave you with a couple pics I took of the kids in their Steelers garb on Sunday. Go Steelers!!

Brooke's 9 month pictures

We finally took Brooke for her 9 month pictures last night. I waited because, Mary (the one who always does our pics now) was on vacation until the 5th. But then we got a call yesterday afternoon saying that she was leaving early and wanting to know if we wanted to come in early, reschedule, or have someone else do them. We opted to take the chance and have someone else do them. It ended up not being a bad decision : ). I wanted to get some pics of Brooke and Ryan together finally, but Ryan was not cooperating at all. Brooke did awesome for all the pictures, though, and it made it very hard to choose!!

If you want to see Brooke's 6 month pictures to compare, click here. She's changed alot and gotten a ton of hair since then!

Don't you just love Ryan's "smile"? :::sigh:::

She looks SO ornery!

She kept grabbing for the "tickler" thing the lady was using to make her smile, so her hands look kinda funky in some pics, lol.

She loved the canopy!

I so LOVE this pic!

And this one!

She looks so grown up in her little jeans :*).

Love this one, too!

She went for her 3rd synagis shot yesterday...well, actually she has to get one in each leg now because the dosing goes by weight and there's too much medicine for one syringe now. She cried, of course, but not for long. And as you can see from these pics, it didn't affect her mood the rest of the day! I'm a tad concerned about her weight. It was 14lbs. 11.5oz., which is only a 5oz. gain in 4 weeks from last month's appointment. We didn't see the doctor, though...it was only a nurse visit. I'll probably ask about it at her 9 month visit, which I still have to schedule! I'll have to get on that today.

Perspective...

I was going to save this for 'Wordless Wednesday' tomorrow, but I'm too impatient : P. Below is Brooke's hospital picture and a picture I just snapped a little bit ago. In both pictures, she's wearing the exact same hairbow.

WOW : )