Decorating the tree!

We had fun decorating the tree today while Isla watched from her Bumbo chair! It is so special this Christmas to have our baby girl as a new addition to the family! Gives a whole new meaning to the love that is part of Christmas!

We also got the curtain up in the nursery so Isla is sleeping in her big girl crib for the first time tonight! So far so good...its been 20 minutes and no crying yet! Our goal is to really have her sleeping in it all of the time after Christmas. Dr. Bennett said during her 6 month appointment that there will be no psychologic damage to letting her cry it out. It's so hard though! Dr. Bennett also told me a scary story about a 5 year old who is still sleeping in mom and dad's bed because they never let her learn to sleep independently. We'll start baby sleep boot camp after xmas!

Family Thanksgiving

It was so good to be with family this Thanksgiving weekend! Karla and PJ have recently moved to Worchester, MA so we they were able to meet up at Laura's this weekend for a belated Thanksgiving celebration! Of course Isla was such a good girl. We really are blessed and I am SO thankful for my wonderful, healthy baby!

1st Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We took Isla to a Thanksgiving party at my friend Traci's. She didn't have any turkey but still enjoyed the party! Gobble, gobble goes the turkey!
Isla's friend Jacob is the picture below. They had fun looking at each other and Jacob tried to hold Isla's hand. She didn't like that too much!

Big cheeks!

Look at the cheeks! What a cutie!
These pictures were taken at my sister's house over the weekend. We went to help Laura pack but instead just played with Isla. I had such a WONDERFUL weekend off with my baby! I get this weekend off too! So lucky!
Well the latest drama is that Isla does not want to sleep. She wants to play and squeal and blow raspberry kisses. Last night it took two hours for her to finally get into a deep sleep. I think it is time for her to move out of our room. However, this is difficult as the nursery room is open to the living room below. So our only option might be to let Isla have the big room and for us to sleep in the smaller, nursery room!

Isla rolling!

5 months 2 weeks

Little miss rock and roll! It is incredible how fast she is getting SO BIG! I'm not sure but she is probably more than 17 pounds now. My mom got her this outfit with the pants and skirt over top!

Last week she wasn't feeling so good. We had our first "sick baby" doctor's visit. She didn't have swine flu thank goodness! But she did have a red throat and a "virus." So she's been a little fussy but not too bad. It could be much worse!

Her dexterity is getting better. Yesterday I ripped up little pieces of bread to see if she would pick them up. She tried but doesn't have the "pincer" motion down quite yet. Mark said that she rolled both front to back and back to front on her own! YEAH! But mommy has yet to see it!

Halloween lobster!

Last night was Halloween and you know things have changed when you go to a noon baby Halloween party! It was lots of fun with five babies- two pumpkins, one ladybug, a Paul Bunyan and a lobster! Isla was the lobster as a nod to her Maine roots!

Later that evening we went "trick or treating" at Dr. Radke and Rustein's houses. Dr. Radke had his sponge bob squarepants shirt on of course and was serving wine in plastic cups for the adults! Dr. Rutstein just moved into her new house and gave us a bunch of books including "Pat the Bunny" which was one of my favorites from my childhood.

VACATION

Last week was vacation. What a wonderful thing...I week with my baby and my family! We did all sorts of things before the main event on Saturday (Laura and Jon's wedding.) We went to the OOB (old orchard beach) and enjoyed the ocean. Isla took her first trip to LL Bean and got her first fleece (a big thing in Maine!) I got a facial with the bride and MOB- so relaxing! Then Friday we headed out for Meredith, NH. The wedding was at the Inns at Mill Falls. It was gorgeous! All the leaves were changing and the wedding was outside in a heated tent. Luckily Mark's parents were there and were a HUGE help with Isla so I could be a help to the bride.

Isla was so beautiful in her white dress. Mark carried her down the isle and she even had a special bouquet that went around her wrist. It was so great for many of my extended family members to see her! I wish the time with them hadn't gone so fast.

On call

I do not like Saturday call. But when Mark brings Isla to see me it makes my day! He put her in the cutest outfit yesterday with these cute little slippers with animals on the toes.
Isla is doing so good. Last night while I was on call she slept 7 hours for Mark! Tonight we fed her some rice cereal and then some formula to fill her tummy up and she went right to sleep. We didn't even need to go up once to put the pacifier back in! What a big girl!

This month has been really hard for me. I've been working late every night on the cancer service and it is emotionally draining as well. One more month to go and thank goodness for vacation next week! I am so excited for all the grandparents to be here for Laura's wedding. Isla will have such a good time!

Isla eating...Sophie la giraffe!

Isla is doing all sorts of things! Yesterday I came home and she started blowing "raspberries" at me! She also laughed for the first time last week. Along with these cute new things comes some frustrations too. She is still not sleeping well at night. She'll sleep from 8-midnight and then up again at 3 and 5am. It also takes me a good half an hour to cuddle her to sleep. I tried to let her "cry it out" once and I lasted a whole 7 minutes!! Well, my project today is to read my "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" book.

I have the weekend off which is nice- we went to Target this morning! So exciting! We might even get Indian for dinner. Oh how our lives have changed!