8 Month Pictures

I haven’t posted in a bit, and I have lots to write about. So, I’m gonna put in a couple of posts today. By the way, the night after I wrote the last post about Lexi sleeping well finally, it all fell apart. Sometimes she still has good nights, but most nights, she wakes up 2-3 times still. I don’t get it!!! Oh well. It’ll get better.

We took some pictures for Alexia's 8 month day (April 3rd). Decided to take some family pictures too. So, we set up a sheet, and Jacob set the timer, and here's what we got. Pretty good I think! I'm sad that Lexi has seemed to lose her fascination with the camera, so she is harder to get to smile these days. (Before, all we'd have to do is hold up a camera, and she's smile her face off!). Now, it takes a bit more work. But, that's okay. She's still cute, even when not smiling.

No idea what she's smiling at in this picture. Is she trying to fly up to the light?

"I can't wait until this photo shoot is over, so I can go play with my toys that are waiting for me on the floor."

It was really hard to get Alexia to look up at the camera when Jacob or I wasn't behind the camera flirting with her. So, we feel pretty successful that she was at least looking up in this one.

Alexia definitely loves her daddy!!!

Off the subject, here's a bragging moment: Lately, I’ve been making my own homemade baby food for Alexia. I went to a class a couple of weeks ago, and learned how. So far, I’ve made squash, apples, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and pears. Lexi loves them! And they’re really easy! I’ve just been freezing them in ice cube trays, then putting them in ziplock bags. They can keep for up to 6 months in the freezer! So, I’m way excited!

I still need to get some green veggies done, but it's a good start! I feel so domestic!

Sleeping Like a Baby...Finally!!!

I posted a while back about how awful Alexia's sleeping habits were, and wondering if it was ever gonna get better. Thank you for all of your words of wisdom and well wishing. We finally seem to be in a good pattern now. It's not perfect. I know a lot of babies Lexi's age are sleeping way longer than she is. But, we have an awesome nighttime routine and she goes to bed around 10 every night. And....drumroll please....she wakes up only once. Count it. ONCE. She usually wakes up around 5ish. But, her morning feeding time can vary anywhere from 4:30 or so, until around 6. Totally depends on her. (The two nights she slept until 7:30, I thought I had died and gone to heaven!)

Then, after I feed her, she goes back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. Wakes up happy and all is right with the world! It's so wonderful! We've been praying for SO LONG that she'll get better at night time sleep and stop waking up so much, and it's finally happened! I get a REM cycle most every night now. And I just have to remember to recognize this as a wonderful blessing! She's still not awesome at naps. Some days it's two naps, and she's super ornery by bedtime. Other days it's three tiny naps. I think we're probably in the transition point where her body would really be okay with two longer naps. But, she's so used to taking short 30-40 minute naps, that she still needs three of them... But, I think I've said this before...I'd trade good daytime naps for good nighttime sleep any day of the week! So, I'm liking how things are progressing.

Sorry no pictures in this post. I need to take some more, especially since Alexia is sporting this adorable little pop belly, and I can't get enough of her chubby cheeks. They're the only two spots on her that are chubby. So cute. I'll get some pictures on here soon.

Other Lexi stuff: Jacob has lately been spending time with Lexi on the floor at night, practicing crawling with her. She doesn't get the leg bending thing. But, she'll get it eventually. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but I'm VERY grateful to not have to worry about that yet. She's doing awesome at eating her baby food. She LOVES her fruits, and she's starting to like eating bread pieces, and cheerios. Alexia is also starting to get more vocal these days, and it's so much fun. Such a joy she is!!!

Becca's New Blog

I created my own personal blog just this week. It’s gonna be a soap-box, random-thought-type blog. I figured that our family blog is more for family updates and pictures and such. So, I created another one that’ll just be for my random thoughts about stuff. Check it out at your own risk! I’m still fiddling with it. I’m gonna change the background, I’ll probably change the title several times until I find something I love, and I still don’t have a profile or anything fun on there. But, my first two posts are on there, so if you want to check it out, feel free. It’s at sharpbecca.blogspot.com. (Someone already took beccasharp and rebeccasharp. I know! The nerve!!!)

New Skill

Alexia can now sit all by her onesie! She’s been sitting on the couch by me for a while just fine. She’ll sit in the corner and play with toys while I sit by her. But, on the floor, she hasn’t been sitting at all. Can’t hold herself there. Maybe it's her long torso, and short legs. But, all of a sudden, it happened. She never even did the tri-pod step. (Using her hands out in front of her to balance) She just started sitting up. We had borrowed a Bumbo from a friend about two weeks ago (a nifty little rubber-ish seat that helps babies sit up – useful for baby food feedings even). Lexi sat in it once for about 45 minutes or so, but after that, she didn’t want to have much to do with it. Before that, we've been practicing sitting, where I’ll have her sit on the ground with me sitting behind her, with my legs on either side of her. She'd play there, and have my legs to lean on. But, just in the middle of last week, she started sitting on her own – minimal falls. She can sit for more than 15 minutes at a time, with no falls! Now, she’s a pro!

It used to be that if I needed to leave her on the floor and run downstairs or something, I’d just have to lay her down on her back, and she didn’t like that so much. She likes to be upright. So she’s loving the fact that she can sit on her own now, because she doesn’t need us anymore to be upright and playing. (Of course, she does fall sideways sometimes, and needs us to rescue her. But, even when she falls, she’s rarely cried.)

Her latest favorite thing is for us to put her on the floor in front of her basket of toys. She then proceeds to take every toy out (some she plays with, others she just takes out). When all the toys are out, we put them back in and start over!




She looks way too tiny to be sitting all by herself! Pretty soon she'll be crawling! No. We're not ready for that yet. Not NEARLY ready.




She loves getting her picture taken! Here she is doing her latest intense grunt-smile. Love it!!!

"Whatever you do, keep breathing!"

Alexia is seven months old, and we took some new pictures of her last week. They turned out way cute. I haven't posted pictures in a while though, so these pictures are from the last month or so.

It's a good thing she's cute, cause she's sure been a handful this past week. I think she's teething. For one thing, she has been playing with her tongue a lot lately. Also, she's been slobbering more than usual. She's always slobbered a lot, but lately it's seemed to be more. She's also had a small cold lately - congestion, and snot running everywhere. But most of all, she has been really ornery. Crying when I try to nurse her (very unusual). Crying during her baby food feedings (which she usually loves). Or just crying for no reason.

It was one of these "crying for no reason" sessions, that a big event happened. Since Alexia was born, she's been a breath holder. She'll be crying, and just hold her breath for a few seconds. I found out that Jacob was a breath-holder when he was little as well. And my brothers kids were all breath-holders. So, I figured it was in Alexia's genetics. My sister-in-law, Tessa, taught me a trick to just blow in the direction of Alexia's nose when she holds her breath, and that gets her to breathe. So, it's been working so far.

But, on Friday, Alexia got really frustrated with me when I took something away from her and started cleaning the slobber off her hands and chin. She started screaming really loud, and then she didn't take a breath for a while. I watched as her face turned blue, her lips turned blue, and I tried blowing in her nose, and that didn't help. Then, all of a sudden, her body went completly limp, and her head rolled back. She passed out!!! She immediately came-to, and screamed her guts out. I know that passing out is a risk for breath-holders, but I didn't think it'd start this early! She's only seven months old!!! It scared the heck out of me! Looking back, Alexia was only holding her breath for maybe 15 seconds or so. But, it was sure long enough to shake me up.

Hopefully the entire teething process won't be so dramatic...

Isn't she cute?

Six Months Already?!?

Has the time gone by that fast? Is my little newborn already six months old? Crazy! We went to her six month appointment last week, and I just can't believe that she's that big. Another six months, and we'll be putting her in front of a big birthday cake in nothing but a diaper, and seeing what happens. I can't wait. Then again, I CAN wait. I'm not ready for her to get big yet. I still enjoy that she wants to be held all the time. I still love when she occasionally falls asleep on my lap. I love when she lets me hold her near my shoulder, and she puts one arm over my shoulder, and one around my neck - mini hug. I love when she reaches her arms up from the ground waiting to be picked up. I love that she gets excited when I hand her a toy she wants. I am still too lazy to baby-proof the house, and I'm nowhere near ready for her to crawl or walk. So, for now, I'll just enjoy her being little.







She's still only 12 lbs. 5 oz. She's gained less than four pounds since her birth! But, she's growing taller, I guess. She's just under the 3rd percentile for weight, and the 10th for height. But, the doctor isn't worried yet. She's healthy, and I promise I'm feeding her. Jake and I just have small jeans in our family. (I know what you're thinking. And I agree. I wish THOSE kind of jeans were small too. But unfortunately, mine are huge, thanks to my hips and backside).

On another note, we had a breakthrough last week. We had three nights in a ROW that Alexia only woke up once. She went to bed at 10, and didn't wake up until after 5. It was amazing! Up until last week, she's been waking up faithfully in the 1:00 hour, in the 3:00 hour, the 6:00 hour, and up around 8:30. It was just getting to the point where I wasn't gonna be able to handle it anymore. I'm always sick, thanks to the lack of REM cycles in my sleep. And I've been praying that I'd find a way to get her to sleep longer. We had tried EVERYTHING! But, one thing I read last Monday suggested that in the nighttime routine, to feed the baby first, THEN do the bath, story, songs, whatever. The article said that if the baby gets used to having food right before nighttime sleep, she'll associate sleep with food, and when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she won't be able to put herself BACK to sleep without more food, creating a viciuos night waking habit. So, I tried changing the order of night stuff. I fed her around 9:20 instead of 9:30, and then had Jacob put her jammies on, sing a song to her, and pray with her and put her down. She went down without a tear, and didn't wake until 5:15 that first night. I told Jacob he's officially hired as the putter-Alexia-down-to-bedder-...whatever...person. Same thing on Wednesday night. Same thing Thursday night, except that night, she didn't wake up until 5:50. It was HEAVEN! Three nights of REM cycles in a row! So, I was a happy camper.


I was hoping that was the magical fix, and she was cured of her awful night waking habit. But, no such luck. The next three nights, the night waking came back with a vengeance. Friday and Saturday nights, she was up at 2 or 3, and I let her cry herself back to sleep, and fed her when she woke up again. But last night, she woke up at 2, then 3, then 4 (I fed her at 4), then she woke again at 5:45, then 6:45 (I fed her at the 6:45 waking), and again at 8, then 9. No idea where that came from. I'm guessing it'll just take a while for her body to learn how to fall asleep on her own. Naps are still a nightmare. So, I'm trying to be patient. Wondering what I did wrong from the beginning. Six month old babies are supposed to be sleeping through the night, right? And I'm pretty good about having naptime routines set. Once she's down for a nap, I rarely go back in her room while she's crying. So, I don't get why she hasn't learned yet to go to sleep quickly.


Oh well...I guess this will be one thing I'll be able to be grateful for once she gets older. I'll miss all the baby stuff, but I'll be SO grateful for a good night's sleep!!!

The Nine Blurps of Christmas

I got this wonderful idea from Julianne, a friend from my old Dentrix and Wymount days. So, I'm stealing her idea and doing some BLURPING - (a technical term that means I'm about to catch you all up on what I've missed writing about in the last little while.)

It's gonna be a long one, so I apologize. Get comfy. Here goes:

Blurp #1
Alexia has been getting awesome at Tummy Time. (She's starting to be able to support herself sitting, but not quite, so we don't have pictures of that.) But, she's getting good push-up muscles on her tummy, so that's improvement! She used to not let us put her on her tummy at all, and now she's okay with it! At least for a few minutes...when she's happy...in the morning. Okay, maybe not the greatest at the tummy stuff yet. She just likes to be upright. But, I love how cute she is on her tummy. Notice her shiny hands - slobber everywhere!!!

Blurp #2
We're not big fans of the JCPenny Photo place. We got some great photos taken there a couple months ago, but they kept pressuring us to buy more pictures than the ones we wanted, and we thought "Hey, we have a camera. We have a finger to push the button! Why don't we take some of our own?!?" So, we took some Christmas pictures of Alexia, and they turned out pretty cute. Here's just a couple:

Blurp #3
At our Ward Christmas party, I KNEW Alexia would scream her head off when sitting on Santa's lap. But, I figured - every kid needs that screaming-their-head-off-on-santa's-lap picture for posterity. So, even though she needed a nap, we took her to the party anyway. And lo and behold, she didn't cry! Her first Santa meet was a success!

Blurp #4
Alexia's first Christmas went great! We were up in Brigham City with my parents for Christmas, and Alexia didn't scream her head off then either! She rather enjoyed eating the wrapping paper, and probably would've rather we didn't take it so fast to throw it away and hand her the present inside. But, she loved her teething rings her grandma Partridge gave her, and proceeded to slobber all over them immediately!

Blurp #5
On the 28th, we celebrated Christmas at the Sharp's. Alexia got a cute sheep piggy bank (that I'm sure she'll enjoy someday), and a cute pink onesie from Moab, a book, and another new teether! She loves ANYTHING we let her slobber on, so she loves the teething rings! We hadn't taken many pictures until Jake's brother Jeff got out this monstrous remote control Jeep Crawler thingy, and Jon started showing off and climbing all over stuff. Once he started crawling on me and up to Alexia, she got a bit scared. But, once she got over the fear, she proceeded to try sucking on the edge of it. Everything goes in her mouth! Even huge $800 toy jeeps!

Blurp #6
Alexia's new favorite game is the drop-the-toy-and-make-a-pile-and-wait-for-someone-to-pick-it-up-for-me game. She loves to sit on someone's lap, or sit in her bouncer, and have a huge pile of toys to play with. She then proceeds to drop them one at a time on the floor. (Or throw them, if the desire overtakes her). She then watches the toy pile get bigger and bigger. Then, she complains when they're all gone. So, we pick them all up and start over again. It keeps her entertained for a while at least! I can get cooking done and occasional cleaning, as long as I notice when the toys run out and pick them all up for her.

Blurp #7
We noticed how interested Alexia has been lately in our food, and so we thought we might start feeding her rice cereal soon. We thought we'd get her familiarized with baby spoons first, so she doesn't protest when we put said foreign object in her mouth. So, we gave her a bunch of brightly colored spoons for Christmas, and Jacob then proceeded to take over 20 pictures of her playing with them. I mercifully only posted three of them. (Watch the evolution of the spoon's position. She finally figured out which end goes in her mouth!!!)

Blurp #8
Every time I eat these days, Alexia just stares at my food. No matter what she's playing with, or what game she's involved in, if there's food in the room, and someone is eating it, she just stares at them and the food the whole time they eat. We'll have to teach her eventually that staring isn't polite. But for now, it's cute!

Blurp #9
Lately, we've been giving Alexia tiny finger tastes of things we eat. On Christmas Eve, we let her taste the sweet and sour meatball sauce. She loved that! We let her taste a tiny bit of taco salad drippings on a place (no meat in the taste, of course...just sauce). She LOVES it! So, we determined that she's ready for rice cereal. Everyone seems to have advice on when to start it. Some people are adamant that we should wait until 6 months. Others think we're behind because we've waited until 5 months. So, we asked the baby bible - the pediatrician. They gave us the go-ahead. So, on Tuesday, we gave her the first taste of rice cereal. Poor kid. She gets tiny tastes of good flavored food, and we finally determine we can feed her, and all she gets is this bland rice mush. But, she seemed to enjoy it! She kept grabbing the spoons, wanting to be the one to put it in her mouth. I'm sure that more of it ended up on her bib than in her mouth, but hey, it's a start!!!

Happy New Year everyone!