Abby has been consistently getting up 2 to 3 times a night for the last month or so. Come to think of it, she's been doing this almost since she was born. There was a stretch of a week or two in there that she only got up once a night. And I think she's slept through the night a grand total of 4 times (every time has been for Peggy....).
It's really been killing us lately. So we asked the doctor what to do. Apparently we have to get Abby used to going to bed on her own. As many of you know, Abby has issues with going to sleep. We think she's gotten addicted to us rocking her to sleep (although often that doesn't even work). She just cries and cries some more sometimes.
So the doctor has recommended that we start putting her in her crib before she falls asleep. I know this is not a new concept to most people, but it is to us. If we ever dared to lay her down without her being asleep, she would just scream. And I mean SCREAM!
We thought we couldn't do it. The doctor even warned us that the first week would be terrible. So we started a bit last night, but more so today. Abby has done pretty well with it so far (much better than we expected). As we thought, she sure does scream. But usually calms down within 5 minutes to a low "winding down" cry. With her naps today, she didn't cry much more than 5 to 10 minutes. Our plan was to let her cry for 5 minutes, pick her up to calm her down, then put her back down. We envisioned doing this for at least 30 minutes each time for the first few days. But, luckily, that hasn't been the case.
It's weird how things work. We always knew she shouldn't be falling asleep in our arms, but sometimes it just takes someone telling you something to make a simple change. Hopefully this is a change that will hold up and have a positive effect on both Abby and us (meaning our sanity).
In addition to all of the above, the doctor thinks that Abby is relying on a bottle to fall asleep. So, we're starting to give her a smaller and smaller bottle each of her feedings throughout the night. A few days ago, she was getting four ounces twice a night. We're already down to 2.5 ounces each feeding. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep lowering that amount, until she doesn't expect a bottle in the middle of the night anymore. That combined with her putting herself to sleep should (hopefully) allow her to sleep through the night better.
Again, it's such a simple change. We just always thought that she was so hungry when she woke up, that we wanted to fill her up as much as possible, so that she'd sleep longer! It turns out that maybe giving her more was encouraging her to wake up more!
Why didn't we think of that?!?!
"This won't be so bad!"
"Or maybe it will!"
"Someone save me!!!!"
"Mommy, you promised me green beans would taste good!"
"I'm going to make silly faces now"
"Make it stop mommy!"
"Hooray! All done!"
Friday night the guys came over for a fire and s'mores... no pics it was too dark.
Despite opening weekend the place wasn't packed and sky's overcast so we enjoyed our time with the goats and llamas. 
Abby stayed awake until the very end, when she crashed. 
So things got a little messy today. But like her bib says she's perfect. Abby was more interested in hydrating her hair and skin with the carrots then actually eating them. Oh well there's always tomorrow.
Mommy and Abby are participating in a "Mommy and Me" look alike contest at Peggy's work. The winner gets a gift certificate. I think they have a good chance! We even put green contact lenses in Abby's eyes to match her mommy's. (Just kidding of course!)
Daddy time
Brown and Charlotte reading
I tried taking this picture three times, and never did they both look at the camera.
Abby and Charlotte catching up, they hadn't seen eachother in a month.
