I've been trying to get Ella to fall asleep on her own for her naps and at nighttime. So far nothing has worked. So today I tried the Ferber method. The first night you attempt the Ferber method, you put your child to bed as you normally do. Your baby should be tired but still awake when you put her to bed, so that she is left to fall asleep on her own. After you leave the room, the baby will inevitably start crying. Allow her to cry for about 5 minutes, then re-enter the room to console her. It's important that you stay in the room for only a short time - even if she is still crying - and that you don't pick her up or rock her. This second time you leave the room, wait 10 minutes before returning in the same manner. The third time wait 15 minutes, and set this as a maximum wait time for the rest of the night.
Every time thereafter, enter the room briefly and then allow your child to cry for 15 minutes. Eventually, she will fall asleep on her own during one of the 15 minute intervals in which you are out of the room. The second night, you should begin with a 10 minute wait before re-entering the room, followed by 15 and then 20 minutes. In a similar fashion, increase your initial and subsequent wait times by 5 minutes each night.

Hopefully this will teach Ella to learn to go to sleep on her own. The hardest part is going to be listening to her cry. We tried it at nap time today and it worked well. She got a bottle and then closed her eyes. I knew she was tired so I took her to bed, gave her a kiss and told her that I would see her in a little bit.

It only took 20 minutes and she was out. I can't wait to try it tonight and see if it will work. She is waking herself up in the middle of night and doesn't know how to get herself back to sleep.

We will see how it goes.......


PS. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

The poor baby girl is sick!! She woke up last night around 3am and ate her normal 8oz bottle and then puked it up all over Daddy!! She did that once more and finally fell asleep in Daddys arms on the couch. Poor little thing is all congested and has been running a fever all day!

It's so hard to see your baby not feeling well. I just wish she could talk and tell me whats wrong!

____________________________________

Funny story behind this pic. Last week I took these pictures and sent them off to Walgreens to be printed. When I went to pick them up, they accused me of violating the copyright law and were not going to give me my pictures. After telling them that I would bring in my camera with the pictures still on them, he finally gave in and gave them to me (with a warning that he better not go to jail). Maybe I should go into business......

It has been so freaking cold here in St. Louis that Ella and I haven't been out much this week. Yesterday, before the POOP incident, we were in a pretty good mood so I decided to take some candid pictures of my very cute daughter:

(the POOP incident involved one very poopy girl, one poopy diaper, one poopy onsie, poop on the floor, in her hair and all over her backside. It also involved pee on the floor). VERY, VERY, bad day for MOMMY!!!!

God help us Ella has learned to roll!! Last Thursday she started rolling onto her stomach anytime she was placed on her back. Over the weekend she practiced that alot at Aunt Jennifers house. Today, she is rolling. Like a steamroller!!! Look out folks. Put away your breakables....Ella is on the move.

In response to Daves Blog comment on what he will teach my child on Feb. 3....let me tell you what will really go on that day.

3pm Dave and Emily are so excited to watch Ella
3:30pm Ella poops, Dave and Emily have first major fight over who will change diaper.
3:35 Emily wins and Dave has to change the diaper....
3:36 Dave discovers the Ella has Exploded out of the diaper and has pooped on her neck
3:37-4:00pm Dave, with the help of Emily, changes Ellas entire outfit, bathes her and throws dirty outfit in Kitchen trash.
4:15pm Dave discovers that Kitchen now smells like a toxic waste dump and takes out trash.
4:30 Daves neighbors call and complain that there is horrible smell coming out of the garage.
4:35 Dave takes trash to local dump....
5:00pm Dave and Emily feed Ella
5:15pm Ella spits pureed Green Beans all over Dave, spits up on Emily and farts.
5:30 Dave takes Shower, Emily sponges off.....
5:35 Emily changes diaper
5:37 Diaper on backwards, try again
5:40 attempt again to feed Ella,
6:00 play with Ella
7:00pm Give Ella a bath
7:30 Decide that bath time was not a good idea and Dave sends Emily to Walmart to buy sponge mop.
8:00 Emily returns to mop up the 8 inches of water on the floor in the bathroom
8:30 attempt to feed Ella, again.
9:00pm try to rock Ella to sleep
9:30 Cops show up to ask Dave and Emily if there is a problem with the child.
9:35 Cop attempts to rock Ella to sleep
9:40 Elderly women next door knocks on door to ask if there is a problem as she is being kept awake by screaming child.
9:45 Elderly women attempts to rock Ella to sleep
9:50pm Cop and Elderly women sing duet to try and coax Ella to sleep
9:55 Another Cop shows up and asks if there is a party going on
9:56 Other Cop joins in on the duet (now a trio)
10:00pm Mike and Paula arrive and take the now poor, traumatized child
10:01 Ella is sleeping soundly in Paulas arm,
10:05 Mike and Paula wonder what Dave and Emily did all night.
10:30 Dave and Emily decide that they will never watch the baby again...Have several Shreks.

I've found the something that babies fear other than the nurse with the needles at the doctors office.......The Snot Sucker. Ella can see that thing coming for her face and she starts screaming before we are anywhere near her little nose. I can't wait for the day I can just grab a tissue and say "blow".

For all of you that have requested a new pic:

Getting ready to head out in the cold. Her hat is still a little big....

ATTENTION

Following picture is not for children to see

Mike and I saw this on the Discovery Health Channel.....Can you believe that someone is actually this big? How in the world do you cart those bad boys around?

For those of you in the Missouri area you know about the recent disappearance of a little boy in Franklin County. The news stations are now reporting that he has been found alive and has been returned to his family. Just as equally exciting is the fact that he was found with another little boy that disappeared 4 years ago, Shawn Hornbeck.

I'm so glad that they found both of these boys alive and well. I have been praying that they would be safely returned. Mike and I had a conversation last night about this and I can't even imagine what there families were going through.

I don't understand how a person can do this. What right do they have to take another persons child? I would want that persons head on a platter if anything ever happened to my daughter. What goes through a persons mind when they are contemplating doing something like this?

God has done a wonderful by bringing these boys home. Everyone hug your child a little bit tighter tonight, tell them you love them and be thankful that they are safe!

Randomness....Is that even a word?

Picture of Ella in her first shopping cart rideKenny helping with my new patio a few years ago
Just a few random pictures I found on my camera I thought I would share.

The weather here in St. Louis is getting ready to turn nasty. It was almost 60 here this morning and I just checked the weather and it is down to 35!! Raining here with it changing to sleet and ice sometime tonight. It is supposed to continue on through the weekend so we could be looking at significant ice accumulations once again.

Ella is getting so big! I look at her everyday and am just amazed at what she is doing. This week she is really getting good at sitting up all by herself. Every once in a while she will lunge for a toy and over she goes. We have also introduced the sippy cup this week, just getting her used to it. So far I think she likes it, more to play with it than anything!!

Life has been pretty routine here in the Williams house. Just trying to get her and I into some sort of routine. The only thing that is for certain right now is bedtime at 8pm. Other than that, its a day by day thing. Depending on her mood....typical girl!!

Have I said that I hate WalMart? I hate that all the carts have messed up wheels. I hate that the baby seats look so nasty. I hate that there are never more than 3 cashiers working even though there are 500 people in line buying salt and snow shovels. I hate that the self- checkouts are never open!

I've been trying to post for several days now but as always as soon as I start little Miss Ella wakes up and wants some attention. So I've given her a dose of Tylenol (for the teething) and she is out right now.

The last few weeks have been so crazy and busy. We got back from our trip only to have to shop like mad for all the Christmas gifts we hadn't bought. Got that done with and had to get ready for the New Years Eve Party we hosted.

Now that the holidays are done, Ella and I are trying to settle into some sort of routine. She is now big enough for the exersaucer, thank you Lord, so I get a little break to get some things done. I love that thing and so does she! She has also discovered Sigma in the last couple of days. She loves to try and grab at him! So far he hasn't seemed to mind.

She rolled over from back to front on Tuesday. That was pretty cool! I can't beleive how big she is getting. Before I know it she is going to be crawling!! YIKES!

There are new pics on her website...go have a look!

Mike and I survived our trip to the Caribbean. Both of us missed a day suffering from some nasty 24 hour flu bug but otherwise it was a pretty relaxed trip. We both have decided that 7 days on a boat is too long. I would rather be dropped off at a resort somewhere and be done with it.

Mike and I have been busy this week getting ready for Christmas. We didn't do much before we left so we have been shopping and wrapping and cooking and cleaning all week. We are almost done shopping, hopefully we will finish tomorrow.

This is just a side note to everyone I know, (mainly for one person, whom I won't mention, but his names rhymes with hill and I'm related to him), STOP BEING WEENIES!!!! We have all been friends or related long enough to know that you don't need a personal invite to come to my house. If I haven't seen you for awhile and hear through the grapevine that I'm having a party, you are invited. I love you all but some of you drive me nuts. :))

Dear Santa:

b v,hgvc okxjvccvjklglkgh,v.cxm drc kd kk.b,h

rgfvc cvvcccccccc n c bfgbhgvcvc

Love Ella

Dear Anonymous:

If you are going to post derogatory and nasty comments, please don't waste my time. I have better things to do than to worry about what comments your sorry ass is going to leave. I think people that have to post anonymously are pathetic anyways, covering up some other inadequate feature. If you can't post who you are then kindly leave my blog and move on to annoy someone else.



(This is in response to two comments I have received lately on my blog. I'm turning off the feature by the way.)

"I think these are a little too big Dad"


First picture with Santa
Daddys little present

Did you know that it is possible to poop on your neck? Yep, I swear its true. I know this is true because the darling, beautiful, Princess Ella decided that it would be fun to try and yes, she succeeded.

Can you say GROSS?!!!! I picked her up, felt something warm, thought to myself, damn she spit up, started to smell something foul, realized she pooped, took her to the changing table and couldn't believe what I saw. Yes, folks the child pooped into the diaper, which then proceeded to ooze out the top of the diaper all the way up her back to her neck!!

Let's just say that Dad has diaper duty for the rest of the week. We had to get a bath and I threw the shirt out. My mother wanted to go retrieve it out of the trash and rinse it off in the toilet......there was as much poop inside the shirt as there was in the diaper. It won't fit her much longer anyways!

I told Ella as we got out of the bath that it was a good thing this didn't happen to her Daddy because if it had, he would have retired!!

I'm sure most people in the Midwest are blogging about the onslaught of Ice and Snow that we are to receive tomorrow. Here's the deal: It's my birthday tomorrow (30th) and I really want it to snow but not so much that I can't go out with Dave, Violet and my Hubby for dinner and drinks.

This is for Dave, I still expect your ass to be in my driveway with your Hummer around 7pm.

Edited: Just to clear up the confusion, when I say (30th) I mean the day, November 30th. Yes Jen, I'm only 29.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Mike, Paula and Ella

So Ella is becoming a beast!! She is not napping, wants ME to entertain her at all times and just crys for the hell of it. I miss sleeping through the night, she was doing so good too!! I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly...she is sleeping right now, Daddy gets up alot of nights with her and she is pretty good at talking to herself....

We started feeding her cereal a few days ago and things are going wonderfully. Here is the pic of that infamous first bite:

As of today I have lost 41lbs since giving birth almost 4 months ago, only 10 more to go.

Of more interest....Ella rolled over yesterday, tummy to back! I was such a proud mommy, my daughter is so smart!! So now she can stare and talk at ceiling fans and roll over. I don't think she realized it as she got that "Oh crap, what did I just do", look on her face.

You know what this means? We are going to start crawling, walking and getting into stuff. I'm not sure that I'm quite ready for that yet. I like my stuff and I'm not ready to have a bare house. I'm not ready to only have the top half of my Christmas tree decorated.

The books say to get down on their level and see what they can reach, get into, ect. So if you happen to stop by and I'm crawling around on the floor, you will know that I haven't completely lost it but I'm preparing for Ella's launch.

I'm going to try and go back to work on Monday and Wednesday. Mike will be here with Ella from 8-1pm those days. We will see how long it lasts. I may need a few of you to call or come by to check on him, to make sure he hasn't pulled all his hair out. My plan is to go to the gym from 8-9 and then head to the office until 12:30pm. I won't have to go in every week but I need to get out of this house.

That's something nobody talked about: the boredom. At this age, Ella still takes several naps during the day and I'm going crazy in this house. I don't get to have any adult interaction except with my husband. I need to get a life!! SO, I'm going to try to work 2 days a week. I've also joined a Moms group here in the area. I'm so ready to get out and meet some other moms with little ones.

How do people have their baby on a schedule? Apart from getting her into bed every night at 8-830pm there is no such thing as a routine.


I give up!!