Our little growler

Louise is 5 1/2 months.  This month has brought a few new challenges.  At 4 months I could see that she was starting to put herself on a bit of a schedule, whereas before it had always been really scattered and all over, so I decided to take it and run with it.  Bad idea.  As soon as I started putting her down for her naps at a regular time each day she stopped sleeping through the night (I figure it wasn't really putting her on a schedule that threw her off, it just happened to coincide with another development, for instance, she started teething).  After about a week of this I tried stopping putting her down at a regular time, but she still didn't sleep through the night.  We're getting better at it, though.  She goes down for 3 naps around the same time each day, most of them an hour and a half or longer (before she'd only take a couple of little 20 minute naps at random times).  I put her down for the night at 7 and she wakes up around midnight to eat, then USUALLY sleeps until 7 am.  Sometimes she wakes up a few times during the night, but I've been using the Sleep Lady method to get her back to sleep, which USUALLY works well (thanks, Rachel).  I also used to struggle with finding a routine since I don't bathe her at night, but we've got our own now.  I put her in pajamas, maybe do a little infant massage, feed her, read On the Night You Were Born (such a sweet book, thanks Margaret!), sing You Are My Sunshine and rock (Justin gave me a glider for my birthday), then put her in her crib while humming.  We also have a bedtime classical playlist playing during this to relax her.

Louise is making all sorts of developments.  She rolls over all the time now (another thing making bedtime more difficult), reaches and leans toward everything, and is really experimenting with her voice.  Last month she was squealing and screeching up a storm, but this month she's all about the growl.  It's so fun.  Tonight I was over at my grandma's around bedtime, and Louise let me know in her own little way that she was ready for bed.  She would rub her eyes, grab my face with both hands and growl, then yawn.  It was pretty adorable.  When she is on her stomach she can...push (?) herself around pretty well.  It's nowhere near a crawl, but she somehow manages to be in one spot, then another when we look away and back.  Her spitting up has lessened considerably.  We're down to one outfit per day, although it gets pretty soggy at times.  She loves giving kisses, and we love it, too!  She grabs either side of your face or your hair and ear, and rubs her open mouth around on your face.  Whenever I'm holding her she has a firm grip on the back of my hair - it's her little handle.

 My MIL Margaret made her this precious outfit.  

 Kevin Nugent, author of Your Baby Is Speaking To You.

 T. Berry Brazelton, author of Touchpoints.

 She got her toys on her arm all by herself.

 "Parents everywhere are going to freak." -- Justin

Cousin Scott, 7 months older

We have so thoroughly enjoyed every stage, but this one is very exciting.  She's always learning something new.  We are loving parenthood!

I guess I should give a quick update on how Justin and I are doing...um...I'm sure something is going on...  ;)  Justin's motorcycle is finally maybe going to work!  He's been doing a ton of work on it, taking it apart, making a mess and getting all dirty, then putting it back together again (it may have been a bit more technical than that...), and he finally finished and took it to the motorcycle guy to give it a physical before Justin jumps on to see if it works.  We're so excited.  Justin, because he gets his motorcycle back and actually working, me, because I've never gotten to ride on it.  Every time Justin was going to give me a ride it would break.
Justin is somehow managing to juggle work, school, church, and family, while spending most of his time with us and still excelling in the other aspects.  He's just amazing like that.  I'm so grateful for him and how wonderful and helpful he is.  Louise is getting the best daddy ever (next to mine, of course).  We found out he did not get accepted to the U of U (stupid heads).  So now we wait to hear from the University of Washington, then plan the rest of our lives from there. :)
Justin commented recently on how every mormon woman has a mommy blog, so he decided to start a daddy blog to have an output for all of the valuable parenting information he is learning in the Napa program.  Check it out to read about a special moment we had as parents.
I've become creative!  Ok, not really.  I've just discovered iScrapbook and it's made making cards and stuff really easy.  I recently threw a bridal shower for my friend Whitney, and thoroughly loved it, although it was a lot of work.  I somehow always choose the hard way to do things.

Our last Napa trip deserves a post all on its own.  I'm too tired tonight to post any more, goodnight. :)