.

the day of couldn't have been better:
-friends and family surrounded us
-the service was warm, laid-back, and fun
-bailey didn't fuss!
-i didn't cry my eyes out (like i did at my baptism and wedding)
-friends and family surrounded us

since the last time i actually wrote on this blog, bailey has grown up quite a bit! here are some random thoughts about what's new in her life.

a word or 2 on (in no particular order)...

the baby ergo carrier
this carrier is outstanding! i can't say it's wonderful for tiny newborns, but as your baby gets to be big enough to hold his/her head up, i highly recommend it as it is a back-saver. also, your little baby will be like a little monkey that is latched onto you when you walk around. my little monkey sometimes even "grooms" my breasts/gives me a breast massage as i am walking. added plus is that bailey will actually nap in the ergo. hooray!

sleep training
ok... let me preface this by saying that when the words "sleep training" comes up, a lot of controversy is sure to ensue. if you don't believe me, click on my babycenter post here. most everybody was very against letting a baby cry-it-out. a handful of supporters of CIO, who were too afraid to post, e-mailed me separately. after all the advice, matt and i agreed we would not do it. we would let bailey learn to sleep in her own time. afterall, she wasn't going to be an 18 year-old that needed to be at my boob to fall asleep, right? well, while that is probably true, things got progressively harder and harder for us to get bailey to sleep. no amount of soothing seemed to help to the point of her "crying-it-out" in our arms. we felt left with no choice. after a few nights of matt's back being thrown-out leaving me to do mommying 24 hours in the day, we looked at each other and said "we're crying it out." having perused 4 sleep books with varying methods, we decided to follow the sleepeasy solution. essentially, we let bailey cry-it-out with interval check-ins. the first night, i too had to cry-it-out a bit. but after crying for 40 min the first night, bailey was down to 5 minutes by the 4th night. and best yet, she was able to sleep without waking until 5am. WOO HOO.
sidenote: last night, there was a bit of backsliding. boo!
so tonite, we shall see. it is a bit of an experiment. but i am HOPEFUL. and hope is most certainly a good thing.

electric breast pumps
holy cow... is essentially what i feel like when using my medela freestyle. with my hooters attached to 2 seemingly industrial-strength suction cups, i feel like quite a fancy cow. milk flows much faster and easier than my sad little manual handpump. with such an increased volume of milk, i now feel much more ready to experiment with giving bailey a bottle. my breastmilk, which was previously painstakingly harvested, now no longer seems like such a precious commodity. my sweet, sweet boob juice will now also be at the ready for experimenting with solids as it will be mixed in with rice cereal. stay tuned, rice cereal will probably be happening soon as grandma merry already helped us purchase our first box. huzzah.

playmats
do it. as soon as we set ours up, bailey started rolling all over the place. also, when she spits up on the mat, clean up is so much easier than having to launder the quilt. if you are less impulsive than i am, you can actually buy thicker foam from a gym supply store like this one.

recently, when i've been saying words slowly, bailey will laugh out loud. she's not full-on laughing here, but you get the idea.