17 Weeks

• Isla has gone to bed between 7 and 7:30 EVERY night since we got back from Utah-success!! Our bedtime routine is this: put on pjs, maybe read a book and then hold her and sing Silent Night until her eyes start looking heavy (but are still open). It works like clockwork, by the 3rd verse, she's ready to lay down and fall asleep on her own. Only trouble is, what will I sing to her after Christmas??! Oh and if ever we miss our window and wait too long to put her down, you can stop her fussing by doing some rhythmic bootie pats-she stops crying right away!
• I am constantly finding long hairs in Isla's grip. I'm not sure which will come first, me going bald or me chopping off my hair.
• We discovered that Isla loves Pat-a-cake. She immediately started laughing the first time I did it. It took a month, but she's finally laughing at me too. :o)

• She also loves it when I laugh, even if it's a fake laugh. We had a "laughing war" yesterday, one after the other--SO precious!
• I count mt blessings that we were at least able to establish a bedtime. However, Isla is waking up frequently throughout the night, sometimes only an hour after her last feed. I'm having a hard time not getting frustrated because she was doing 5 and 6 hour stretches before Thanksgiving. I don't know what happened. Last night she was up 6 times which is really wearing on me. And she seems legitimately hungry. Anyway, I'm accepting applications for a night sitter so I can sleep for 8 hours straight, just once before I go back to work in a week and a half. :o)
• Isla loves going for stroller rides while I exercise.
• She also likes facing outward now in the Moby wrap or Snugglie. I often "wear" her while I cook and she watches everything I do. Here's to hoping she'll be my little mini-chef!