Margo à la Maude

Maude has been a little development fireball these last few weeks. She sprouted her two bottom teeth right around Christmas, as predicted. They're fully up now. She started rolling over, back to front right around the same time (dates are fuzzy. This is a good reason to record things on the blog!) She discovered her toes. And we've been working on sleep training for a week.

This is not an easy task with her. I re-read the posts I wrote about our sleep training regime with Margo (here and here if you're interested). Wow, it's a whole different ballgame with Maude. To recap - by the fourth night, Margo was falling asleep within minutes. She has never looked back and has really been a champion sleeper. We've been at this a week with Maude and she's still crying for over an hour before she falls asleep. She also doesn't respond as well to our presence as a way of calming her. We go in every fifteen minutes, and she often continues to cry even when we're in the room. She's on to us, too. The last few nights she wouldn't even sit through a story with Papa, since she knows that he will be leaving her shortly. There has been some progress, and some evidence that she's learning to self soothe (she has taken to rubbing her face against the side of the cosleeper - perhaps hoping a nipple will miracoulsy pop out - and fingering the blankets and chewing on them). With a much earlier bedtime (even with the period of crying) we've gotten a bit of our evenings back, which is wonderful. Just like with Margo, Maude's naps have also gotten a little better during the day, which I think is a by-product of sleeping better at night. So we'll perservere.

Maude has a lot of character and is a super happy baby at other times. She loves to be sung to, danced around, and she loves to chew her toes. She tried a bit of applesauce this week and while a bit too young, seems very into the idea of food. She cried this evening when her tablespoon of applesauce was gone. She's gotten super strong and loves to be on her tummy. She's growing fast, as they do. She's a joy.