The Most Overused (Yet Truthful) Sentence In The World

"Time flies!"

Isn't that true?

Olivia turned 10 months yesterday and I am still speechless... I mean, I already miss her newborn body, skinny legs, lots of black hair, the pants that would be too be and would come up to her armpits. It was so cute! Of course she gets cuter by the hour, she IS my daughter after all! ;)

I know I haven't updated much about Olivia, her likes and dislikes and development. I am trying to keep a record of that someplace else more private but I would like to share with you what she's up to now.

She recently had a cold and her first ear infection. She kept her tongue out when she had her cold, for DAYS, maybe to breath better? It was surely funny!

At her 9 months check up she weighed a little over 23lbs and was a little taller than 28inches. My 10 months old baby wears 12-18 months clothes, especially pants since she inherited her daddy's butt! Has two teeth, first one came out about 2.5 months ago and the second is cutting as we speak. And they are BOTH crooked, making a V. I kid you not!

Loves all foods, but adores bananas, carrots, green beans, apples, fresh squeezed juices from our juicer and chicken and cheese. We do not feed her sweet stuff, sodas, candy, fried foods, etc. Of course here and there a 'friend' will just put icecream in her mouth because "it's funny", but they don't think it's funny anymore when mama bear is about to attack them. Call me crazy, but I want my daughter to eat sugar from natural sources such as fruits, so keep the whipped topping and the french fries to yourself, please.

We recently went to Jamba Juice and she loved the all fruit smoothies. She doesn't know how to suck on straws yet, I have tried three different types of sippy cups but she is not interested. One day she will get it, right?

She waves bye bye, stands and holds, climbs mountains (aka stairs), signs milk, says dada and mama (it might be a coincidence but she says dada to Trevor and mama to me so...), loves baths, loves her bath toys, loves to be out and about, turning the tv on and off with her TONGUE, music and DANCING. You can go to our youtube account to see videos of her. Hilarious child. The light of my life!

Now, of course she is CLOSE to perfection, but has her stinky moments. The one thing that we are struggling with right now is BEDTIME. Yes, quite frustrating, and exausting. Olivia was so easy to go down since she was a baby, sleeping at least 8hours/night by the time she was 6 weeks old. I never really had to attempt to "train" her until recently. I am SURE someone out there jinxed my baby!!!

She always slept on her crib but the crib was in our bedroom close to our bed. In November we moved to a new place and she now has her own room. Since then it's hard to keep her asleep. I have tried EVERYTHING I have been told, read, instructed to by her Dr and my therapist.

First we stablished wake up time (8:30am) and nap times (she has two now: 11am-noonish and 3:30-5pmish).

Then we decided that we were going to start her bedtime ritual around 8pm, which has always included bath, cuddling and bottle.

Waking up and naps work great, we put her down for naps when she is still awake but she has learned to stay there playing until she falls asleep. She rarelly cries when we put her down to nap.

Bedtime though... she WILL go down like an angel but ALWAYS, 30 to 45 minutes after she's down, the crying begins. That child does.NOT.want to stay in that crib. I have tried Ferber, the CIO, soothing her, more cuddling, no cuddling, singing, silence, taking her to my bed, walking around, leaving her there, music, white noise, more food, less food, later bedtime, earlier naps and waking up time... ARGH! Nothing works.

Right now it is past midnight... She took her bath at 9:30ish today (again, trying to do this later in the hopes that she will be more tired and STAY asleep!), ate, slept and woke up around 10:30pm and just won't stay down. So I gave up listening to the crying (I HATE IT! kill me!) and brought her to the living room to get the energy out.

I asked my Dr if it's possible that her clock is just messed up, he of course told me WE train their sleep. But I am serious when I say I have tried every method I have heard of, and not for a day or two... for WEEKS at a time. I don't know what to think and/or do because I need to wake up at 5:30am to go to work and even when Trevor stays up with her, it makes it hard for him to wake her up at 8:30am because she will NOT want to stay awake. If you let her, she will sleep until noon or so. MESSED UP! So needless to say... advice is welcome. Sometimes I wonder if she wakes up and doesn't see us there anymore and freaks out? Is she having nightmares? It's a different cry, hiccups and all sounding like she is really freaked out about something... *sigh*

(and Yes, I have read Baby Wise, Healthy Sleep Habits Healthy Child, and about three other books. This Olivia stinker is defiant... give me something that will WORK!)

In the meantime, I'll try some more cuddling tonight. Hey, it soothes ME at least ;)