Sleep Problem Solved

I decided that I would just let Bentley sleep with me. A few nights later he crawled off the bed while Paul and I were still asleep. I changed my mind and decided he needed to sleep in his own bed, it was for his safety. I won't go into details about how I did it because I don't need a guilt trip about letting my baby cry, but if you want to know you can contact me. It worked and now we have a schedule that is very predictable and he knows when it's time to go to sleep. We are in Arkansas right now and he has adjusted pretty well. He seems to like the pack 'n play.

We found out that we will be stationed in San Diego. We should be moving there at the end of September. I am excited about it. There will be more things for us to do and the weather will be much nicer. The cost of living there is crazy expensive though. I've been researching apartments and such online and it just blows my mind. Paul's SSgt told him that he would need to get a motorcycle because it can take 30 minutes to go 5 miles. It is legal to cut lanes with a motorcycle there and they drive crazy! I don't know how I feel about it yet. It scares me, but I hate the thought of him spending an hour in the car just to get a couple exits down the highway. I guess we'll see once we get there.

Here are some recent pictures of Bentley. He is growing like a weed. I can't believe he is almost 9 months old. He has two teeth and is crawling everywhere. He keeps me busy.

HELP!

Sleep... Okay, some of you have kids and some of you don't. If you don't have kids you can read this and feel sorry for us, but if you do have kids, please give me any advice that you have. Bentley used to be a great sleeper. He would only wake up once to eat and he would go right back to sleep, in his own bed. When he started rolling over in his sleep about 2 months ago, I had to stop swaddling him. Ever since then he will not sleep unless I am holding him or he is right next to me. I've been just letting him sleep with me, but I don't sleep good because I'm worried and it's hard to sleep in the same position all night every night. We have a bedtime routine, he falls asleep very easily, and I put him in his crib. He wakes up anywhere from an hour to 3 hours later and will not go back into his crib no matter what I do. He rubs his eyes constantly, pulls out his paci, sits up and just cries. He is currently teething so I give him teething tablets, put orajel on his gums, give him tylenol or motrin, but that doesn't seem to be the problem since he will go to sleep immediately if I lay beside him. I posted previously that I accidentaly let him cry it out and was going to try it again. Well, he cried off and on for 2 hours and I couldn't take it anymore. I know we would both sleep better if he was in his bed. So, how do you get your babies to sleep? I'm open to anything.

Other than the sleeping issue we are doing great. Bentley is crawling and pulling up on everything. My birthday is coming up and we might get a babysitter and go out. I'm a little nervous about that since we can't really stay close because there isn't anything close by to do. My phone died this morning and they asked me to bring it in, but the nearest Alltel is 90 miles away. We hopefully only have about 3 more months here.

Now for some pictures. The carrots got a little messy. I've learned to just strip him down when he eats, using a bib doesn't help at all.

Before we got this gate our days were spent with Bentley crawling over to all the fun stuff with the cords and then me moving him away, over and over and over. Now he doesn't even really notice they are there.

6 Month Pictures

Here are some of Bentley's 6 month pictures.

7 Months

Bentley had his check-up the other day. He is 17 lbs 2.8 oz and 26 1/4 in long. He is pretty much staying in the 25th percentile. He is trying very hard to crawl, and is doing everything else he should be doing for his age. He's finally settling into a predictable sleeping pattern, but it's not really a good pattern. He goes to bed at 7:30 and falls asleep very easily, but he wakes up every night at 10:00 and will not go back to sleep until I bring him into bed with me. I always said I would never have him sleeping with me, but I have done what everyone said would happen and have brought him in there just so I could get some sleep. I have also said that I would never allow him to "cry it out." Well, last night he had to, by accident. In my sleep I turned the monitor off, only to wake up frantically at 2:30 thinking something had happened to him. I realized the monitor was off and he was sleeping safe and sound. I felt so bad I couldn't fall back asleep for another hour. I have no idea how long he cried. He slept until 5:30 though, ate, and went back to sleep until 6:30 which is his normal wake up time. So tonight we are going to do it again, if I can handle it. I know I slept better not having to worry if I was covering his face with the blanket and being able to roll over.

It is already over 100 degrees here and we have no a/c. We have a swamp cooler which just puts moisture into the air and can cool it up to 20 degrees, but that means it is still around 80 or so inside. It is going to be a very long summer.

He tries to crawl...

But he does a push up instead.

Eating a banana, kind of.

He somehow always finds a way over to his toy basket and dumps it out.

6 months

Bentley is 6 months now, I can't believe it. We've started him on solids and so far he's just had bananas. He seems to like them and he's starting to get the hang of it.

Last month my sister had her senior pictures taken so we got some family pictures as well. Bentley had the same expression in pretty much every picture.

He is teething I guess. This has been going on for over a month now and there are no teeth even close to coming through. He chews on anything and everything, even some things he shouldn't be chewing on. This toy is okay to chew on.

He isn't crawling yet, but he's very good at scooting backwards to get to where he wants to go. We are entering the time in which I cannot turn my back away for even one minute. I found him chewing on a basket that I use to keep his diapering supplies in on the floor. Not okay to chew on. It looks like he's been eating chocolate though.

I guess that will be all for now because my pictures are uploading really slowly and I want to go to bed. I will be going back to CA next week. It is really hot there already and I am dreading the summer. There will be more updates soon so check back.

Gaming

Bentley is going to be like his daddy and enjoy playing video games. Here he is playing some Call of Duty 4 on the xbox.

And here he is playing Mario Kart on the Wii. Obviously the above picture was staged, but I promise this one was not. He was steering and copying Erin. It was so cute.

Arkansas

We are in Arkansas again. This time Paul got to come with us. He is working with the recruiter here for 30 days! Bentley and I will be staying until May 25 so we can see my sister graduate. It's so nice to be here for an extended amount of time. We don't have to rush around to make sure we see everyone. Bentley is growing so fast. At 5 months old he was 15 pounds and 26 1/4 in. long. I don't have any new pictures on my mom's computer, but we had family pictures taken last week and I'll be getting his 6 mo pictures next week. I'll be posting some as soon as I get a chance.