Our first Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving feels completely different then any one of them that I have ever had and that's because this Thanksgiving...I'm a mom. I couldn't have asked for a better feeling then knowing that I get to start holiday traditions with my family. I may never cook a Thanksgiving meal for quite a few years with this family but hopefully sometime I'll be able to participate more in cooking of the turkey and throw my own Thanksgiving get together in MY house.

This year like all our holidays, we went to David's parent's house in Blountville, Tennessee. It was good to see the family and let Fallon play with her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. She really enjoyed being able to crawl around on a carpeted floor and make distance where our wood floor she has to try that much harder to get anywhere because they are a little slick for her tiny feet.

Fallon got to join us and have her own little Thanksgiving feast. We let her have green beans, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce. The sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce were by far her favorites. She has started to eat chunky "mom and dad" foods rather than just her baby stuff and she's really taking to eating that rather then the smooth consistency of Gerber or Beechnut baby food. So we are starting to move on to another milestone and that would be to let her explore her food with her fingers and start to feed herself. I sort of shudder at this thought because I know of the mess that will ensue. But a mess with babies just comes with the territory.

Sleep or the lack there of.

What is sleep? Where did it go? When did my baby become the baby that never sleeps through the night. We were so lucky the first three months of Fallon's life, she spoiled us by sleeping through the night. She has now gotten to the point where she wakes up multiple times a night to eat and to just whine. It has created two zombies in this household. We can't swaddle her like she wants in her crib because she rolls over and doesn't have her arms available to roll herself off of her stomach. Her amby bed is getting too small for her so we're at a crossroads. It's time to teach her to self soothe so that she can put herself back to sleep at night and to be able to sleep unswaddled. We'll try taking the white noise away at a different point when we get everything else fixed. So we have decided to try the Dr. Ferber "Cry it out" method because it teaches self soothing and we've tried all the other methods. She will not sleep in our bed even when we try to let her now so that's out of the running too.

It's so hard to sit and listen to your little one cry. It tears my heart out but she won't even try to crawl without crying because she gets frustrated and knows that if she whines or cries that mommy or daddy will come and pick her up or get the toy that's just out of reach. I feel that this "cry it out" method is what she needs to start gaining some self confidence that she can take that next step and try something new that her body has never done like crawling to the toy that is just out of reach or finding her pacifier in the crib and rolling back over to sleep. (dreaming on that note!)

Fallon did soothe herself to sleep yesterday while she was in her crib and slept for about a half hour. The rest of the day was a nightmare though. We kept trying to put her down for a nap unswaddled and she would cry her little heart out. So we are trying it again today. The drawback of this method is it starts to make me feel like a cold heartless mother to be able to sit here and listen to her cry but I know that she's okay. She's been fed and changed and is completely safe in her crib. If I get really unsure, I turn on the video monitor and know that she's doing just fine. Just to convince my mind and my heart that.

I have a huge support system of other mothers that had babies in March and they are all seeing the same symptoms with the sleep patterns as Fallon and it seems to be revolving around the first teeth! I hope that I can seriously fix this sleeping situation for Fallon's, David's, and my sanity.

Halloween

Halloween in Cleveland is an interesting thing in itself. This being the first year to pay attention to Halloween events in this city made it even more interesting. Fallon got to enjoy her first Halloween as a monkey. We chose this outfit because all through the pregnancy David would feel her kick or move and call her his little monkey. So we thought that it'd be fitting for her to go as his little monkey.

We went to Westwood's event at the Bradley Square mall. They turn the entire mall into a mini carnival with games and candy for the kids. It definitely wasn't the place for Fallon to enjoy. She did enjoy people watching though.

Then we decided to head to Cleveland's annual and huge Halloween block party. We walked around there and then found "treat street" which is hosted by our in town candy factory, M&M Mars. We figured that you'd get a couple handfuls of candy at most but they hand you a 1lb bag of candy for each person in your group plus a handful of candy. It was great. They supplied us with enough candy that we really didn't have to go to Wal-Mart for their Halloween mark downs. The rain started moving in so we came home after hitting treat street. While at the block party we saw this most amazing double rainbow. The base of the brightest rainbow was the widest I have ever seen. It was so beautiful. Really made the evening memorable.