Eyes: Paper Mama Challenge

Oh how I love her eyes! Hoping they stay nice a bright!

hanging outside with littles

The other day after work me and little's went outside to enjoy the weather, read her new book, and take some quick photos. The weather has been beautiful lately. I'm slightly worried about the summer being too hot, so I'm soaking it up now just in case :) Addison really loves being out too. 

To see the pictures, go here!

P.S. we have yet to start sleep training. The plan was last night but I went to bed miserably sick and still feel awful. I don't know what's going on this year but I've never been sick this often! 

Quarterly Top 5

1. Thank you all for your feedback on sleep training. I'm mentally prepping to try again. I know I need to do something or she probably won't sleep the night until she's 3! (So the Dr's say). That would be awful. I just still hate the thought of making her go hungry for hours :/ but I know in the long run it's better for everyone. 

2. I have been so behind on everyone's blogs. Between my job, photography (2nd job!), Addison, and trying to keep up with daily routine and chores I literally have zero time! And when I do get a minute I'm always looking for ways to improve my photography- reading, researching, practicing, and looking for inspiration.

3. If you get a minute I'd love if you visited me at my photography site and follow along! If you do- leave me a comment saying you stopped by! Thanks.

4. This quarterly top 5 was way too hard :)

My favorite of her from Cancun. 

Her 6 Month photo shoot!

I just love this one. It's the first time sleeping in her crib!

First tooth popping through!

Love her blues.

Addison & her Great Grandma<3

naps+nighttime=tired mommy

Lately.
I'm worn out.

As much as my heart aches for the amount of love I have for my little girl, she can really drain every ounce of my being. From her photos you would probably think she's the happiest baby. I don't want to spill her beans- but she is quite the 'needy' baby. By this I mean she constantly constantly needs SOMETHING or she's whining. I'm not talking about a normal baby needing to eat, sleep, or diaper change. She's rarely content for more than 10 minutes at a time- all day long. Some days are better than others. The problem may lie in the fact that she takes horrible naps. 30 minutes are the norm and that's only 2 maaybbbe 3 times a day. So my little 6 month old averages 1 1/2-2 hours of sleep during a 12 hour period. It's not enough. But I've tried everything. Swing, crib, vibrating chair, play-yard, using sound machines, putting her in a dark area. Nothing will keep her asleep for long. 

Then there's the nighttime. Lately it has been so.bad. I get up 4-5 times a night to tend to her, usually feeding her 3 times. It's absurd. After her six month check up when the Doctor told me she doesn't need to eat during the night it's just a habit I tried sleep training. The first night I gave her 1 ounce and tried to put her back to bed. 40 minutes later she finally fell asleep--- for 5 minutes---then woke back up saying 'na na na', which means she's hungry. How the heck do I refuse my baby food when she's clearly hungry enough to keep waking up. The next few nights I tried 2 ounces when she first woke up which was fine, except it only made her wake up sooner again. I finally gave up and started feeding her a full bottle so I'd at least get 2-3 hours of consecutive sleep at a time. She wakes up for everything though- a full diaper or needing a burp makes her wake up. Therefore I'm in and out of bed all night long. It's exhausting.

I'm not writing this post to complain- although it feels good to get it out. I would love to her any inputs or similar situations you may have/had. Maybe your advice will work for us, maybe I just need to suck it up. This mommy needs some sleep!

She's lucky she's so darn cute! ;)

Paper Mama Hand Challenge.

I had to link up for this challenge. This is one of my favorite recent photos of my hubby and baby girl.


melts me.

Vacation to Cancun, MX

I have to say, vacation this year started off rough. The night before our flight Addison woke up coughing, hoarse, and warm (no fever though). She was very upset. It took me twenty minutes to calm her back down to sleep and a little dose of medicine. I didn't sleep that night. She sounded horrible while breathing in her sleep. I can't even describe it. I didn't even close my eyes. We had to get up at 4am and I told myself if she seemed any worse or the medicine didn't seem to work when I woke her up then we just wouldn't go. I didn't know what was going on with her but she sounded down right awful. But when I got her up she was very calm so we decided to go on. She did excellent on the flight, still hoarse voice and cough, but happy. The first night there she woke up screaming again. I had already given her Tylenol an hour prior but she was very hot to even touch. She only had a 100 degree temp but again her cough and her screaming really concerned me. I was petrified. I wanted to break down and cry, she seemed to be in pain. Hub and I went over options. Being in a foreign country I really really didn't want to take her to the hospital but I was prepared to if I thought she needed urgent care. I woke up my sister who had baby Motrin. I called my parents room at 1am and was nearly shaking. I felt so helpless being there. It was the unknown that scared me the most. I kept thinking of the commercial of the 'whopping cough' because that's how bad she sounded. I told my mom if she wasn't better in the morning that I wanted to fly home. I stripped Addison down to her diaper and soothed her as much as possible. I felt like a terrible mother to bring my knowingly sick infant to a foreign country. Thankfully, twenty minutes later her fever broke and she fell back asleep. The next day she woke up in a good mood. I kept her fever down with medicine throughout the next two days but otherwise she was as happy as ever, without much of a voice. Every day after she improved. She still, now, has a little cough. I'm just so thankful she recovered quickly. It felt like the worst situation to be in with an infant but I am glad I had my family there for support!

Anyway, the rest of the week went well. There was a lot of fun in the sun poolside, drinks, and listening to ocean waves. Addison really enjoyed herself, sick and all. She spent lots of time napping her stroller while mommy attempted to get a little tan. Being out there was the perfect white noise for her so she took good naps. Going out to the market and lunch went well too. She just loves seeing new surroundings! And, surprisingly, traveling with five kids four years and under wasn't as bad as expected. And for the most part they were all pretty well behaved!

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Of course I took a million more so it was hard to pick just a few to share :) And of course 95% of them are of Addison :)