Catch-Up

I must apologize for a dry month. I haven't posted very much. Anyway, let's play catch-up...

** We visited my dad and Jill in Louisville, Kentucky where Ava did surprisingly well and was charming for them. We brought home a gorgeous high chair made out of maple that my dad made for Ava. Here's a picture of it:
** We started Ava on solids. I'd originally wanted to wait until she was 6 months old and I had also resolved not to complain about Ava's night waking habit on the blog but I must tell you a little about it to explain why we started Ava on solids earlier than we intended.

Ava used to go 8 hours at night from the last feeding to the next. Now, she is waking every 3-4 hours and demanding a feeding. It's frustrating since we know she is capable of going 8 hours and she did it for a month and half straight. We also know her to be capable of falling asleep on her own since we trained her to do that so she doesn't need our help to fall back asleep. So, that led us to two possible conclusions - either she is very hungry and ready for solids or she simply has a nasty habit of waking up and stubbornly expecting a feeding each time - Ava weighs enough that she doesn't need more than one feeding a night. The kid needs consolidated (not fragmented) night sleep.

So, I read up on signs that a baby is ready for solids and she displayed most of the signs and met the requirements (age, weight, etc). We fed her rice cereal first and she did surprisingly better than I expected. She has tried green beans and sweet potatoes so far.

As far as the effect of eating solids on her sleep habits, she had a couple of good nights when she slept about 10-11 hours with only one night waking but it hasn't been consistent.

** Ava has started to pull her legs underneath her while lying on her belly (she's so funny with her bum up in the air) and getting up on all fours. I managed to snap a picture.

** Ava is sitting up. She can sit up for a few minutes before she gets tired or loses interest and topples over. Here's another blurry picture.

** Ava turns 5 months on the 4th.

Let's see...I can't think of anything else to report. I'll finish off this post with a picture of her chunk as an adios!

EDIT: Two albums have been posted to her Shutterfly website (click on picture in right margin) called "3 Months" and "4 Months." I've also added new pictures to the "Sleeping Beauty" album.