Thank Heavens for the Letter "Z"!

First things 1st!

Now that Carter is getting a bit older... (sad!!)... he is so much more steady.. alert.. and CURIOUS! I can only imagine what he will get into once he starts crawling and walking... oh boy... bring on the baby proofing! Carter can now fully sit all by himself and tries to grab ANYTHING that is close by!

Brian didn't have to work two weekends ago so on May 14th we decided to take Carter on his first (mini) hike through Elbow Falls.. he L.O.V.E.D. it. Like I said, he is a curious boy and there was hardly enough for him to look at. The Drive was beautiful and it made me long for the days when Bri and I were just 16. 17 and 18 and we would drive to Elbow Falls almost every Weekend..

Carter had his morning nap...

And when we arrived.. he was ready to go! Happy and ready to E.X.P.L.O.R.E!

The Sun was shinning and there was a little breeze to keep us from getting to hot.. it was a perfect day! Lots of fresh air... the falls were beautiful as always...

...and a wonderful days with my guys!

Now, let me tell you why I LOVE the letter "Z" so much! Having a baby has made me much more aware... especially when it comes to sleeping!

Around 2 months old Carter would sleep 10 hours and only wake up once... then he got this horrible thing called.. TEETHING.. that wrecked all his sleeping patterns... and only a few weeks ago we had about 3 nights in a row where Carter woke up every 45 minutes to ever hour and a half.. it was H.A.R.D.. and after 3 nights we had enough. I knew that Carter was starting to wake up more out of habit than anything so we had to change it. I did my research and found out that by 6 months your baby can sleep 10 to 12 hours each night without waking up.. I was intrigued! So we started a new Nighttime schedule... one that was SOOO hard to do (for me at least) but completely worth it! I was determined to get Carter to sleep 12 hours a night with a morning nap and an afternoon nap. Here is how we did it!

Before I let my little man sleep 12 hours without eating throughout the night (when he was so used to getting up and eating) we started rice cereal! (May 16)

HE LOVES IT!

I wanted to start it so I knew for myself when he went to bed he was completely satisfied! In fact, Carter loves eating so much that when we eat now, he expects to eat too.. so after a few days we introduced pears to him.. and once again... LOVED IT!

So the new schedule is this... Bottle as soon as he wakes up...bottle at 10:30am.. then morning nap as soon as he finishes it.. no rocking to sleep! Then Bottle at 2:30pm.. then afternoon nap.. Bottle, rice cereal and pears between 5:30pm and 6:00pm.. bath at 7:00pm.. Bottle at 8:00pm and bed for the night right after that.

The trick is not to rock baby to sleep or give him a bottle in his room beacuse then he associates bottle to bed time.. which is why he kept on waking up at night.. he needed a bottle to get back to bed. On the first night, we put Carter to bed at 8:45pm, he cried for 40 minutes and we went in every 5 minutes to sooth him (longest 5 minute wait of my life!) he woke up twice in the middle of the night and cried for 10 minutes each time.. i never took him out of his crib.. I even changed his bum in his crib so he knew I would not pick him up. The second night was worse.. but by the 4th Night Carter was sleeping 10 hours. One week later after a strick routine. i am happy to announce that Carter is sleeping 12 hours without waking up to eat or being soothed back to sleep.

I know lots of people don't agree with letting your baby cry but for us it didn't seem fair to continue to have him dependent on you throughout the night.. he is bigger now and needs a full nights sleep.... and he is such a happy boy!

Of course I still take all the snuggling chances I can get!

This baby boy is my LIFE.. i love you Carter Reed!

Lastly, I know I said I would keep you updated on how my "diet" was going and I honestly forgot but I am happy to say that I didn't forget about it and as of Mother's Day, May 8th, I accomplished my goal! At the end of my pregnancy before Carter was born, I weighed 163lbs... on February 14th I weighed 134.2lbs my goal was 123lbs... at my last weigh-in I was 121.2lbs!! Now, I still want "curves" so I don't want to loose anymore than that but I am proud! It was the first time in my left I accomplished a "loosing weight" goal! But I couldn't have done it without the help from my Brian and my mom and sister working out by my side!! I did It!