Our trip to Mexico was mostly work, work, work. We were at the beach for a few days, and even have photos of Carolina's first encounter with crawling on (and eating) sand! But mostly we worked.
Cut to the chase, Carolina ended up staying up until about 9.30-10pm three nights in a row. The last two, we went out to dinner at a local restaurant, then dinner at his aunt's house, and then we flew home and arrived in NYC at 8pm. So she was forced to be extremely overtired, take a 3rd nap, be awoken about 7pm and stay up late. She was a little 'crazy pants' but it wasn't impossible. She then slept like a bear the following 3-4 days and nights at home. And her "going to bed" time has been moved from 5.30/6pm to closer to 7pm.
It was recommended to me to convince her to stay up until 8pm, but I don't have the tolerance to listen to her cry for an hour just to prove a point. Plus, I look forward to her going to sleep some days when it's a really 'whiny' day. If and when she changes her mind and she wants to stay up later, I'm all for it.
During the trip, because of our schedules and how tired we were, I ended up weening her off the last night feed to a bottle. So by the time we got to the beach, she was no longer breastfeeding at night and only one feed every other day during the day. By the time we got home, she was on every other day and last week I pushed it to every 48 hours. So she's been 2 days without anything, and I think my body is preparing to stop. It's just in 'holding pattern' right now.
Plus her 4th and 5th teeth (top) are totally in and she looks super cute.
The first time we noticed she could wave "hello" or "good bye" was Sunday, March 14th at Bruno's baptism in Leon. I was taking her for a walk since she was tired but couldn't fall asleep in the stroller and as I was walking away, with Carolina over my shoulder, her father waved goodbye to her and she waved back. She's been practicing on nearly everyone she sees since.
The first time we noticed she could clap was during dinner on Thursday, March 25th. I had been clapping for her earlier in the week and started to clap again. Like, "Yea, Carolina, good job using your teeth to bite food." And she started to clap too. It was really cute. Later that night, after she went to bed, Kari came over. We had a birthday fruit tart for me, and I made a wish "that Carolina will sleep through the night before her first birthday."
Later that night... she slept from just before 7pm until about 7am. She cried out 2 or 3 times during the early morning hours but stopped before we got the bottle ready. So the following night, we had the water in the bottle and the forumla measured out like usual but didn't get up since she cried out very briefly and quietly again. Third night, same thing. I'm considering this a 'new chapter' in her sleeping.
She might decide in a few days that we really do have to go in there to feed her or she super pooped and we MUST change her. Okay, that's fair.
Tomorrow she'll be 10 months old. So a few days shy of the 10 month mark and we have sleeping through the night. Not the 'official' definition of 5 hour stretches, but the real deal.
I'm still prepared for it to go away. And it's not as restful as I imagined. But man, it's nice not to have to feed her and get out of bed 2-3 times a night. We still both wake ourselves up to see what time it is and see if we can hear her. Still fear we will miss hearing her in need. But, seriously, that's not going to happen. She makes the tiniest noise and I'm up like an Army Sergent at dawn.
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