Freedom

Several new and exciting developments here in Casa B.

I finally decided to stop being lazy about baby-proofing by simply gating Isa off to just living room. I did some major cleaning and organizing in the kitchen. I was able to put anything that should stay out of Isa's reach either up high or in baskets where she couldn't reach them. When she woke up from her nap on Saturday, she had the great joy of no baby gate between the living room and the kitchen! She's done a great job of not opening cabinets and drawers. The best part is that I can now cook without her freaking out because she can come and go as she pleases. Hopefully this will also mean healthier food in our house instead of the uber-quick stuff we've been eating. (The lovely, organized kitchen definitely makes me want to cook!)

The next goal will be removing the large play yard "fence" that blocks the living room shelves and a glass front cabinet that Isa used to love to bang on. Very good motivation to get that area cleaned up and organized just like the kitchen. I'm pretty confident that we'll be down to a single baby gate (to block off the hallway to the bathroom where the litter box is) in the very near future.

In other news about freedom, tomorrow is our last post-placement visit with our social worker. I imagine Ann will be very surprised to see her now, since she was last here in July when Isa was just starting to pull to standing. So much has changed in the last 6 months!

And finally, in what I hope will lead to more freedom for me..... I finally let Isa cry it out this evening. She usually goes down in the evening without a fuss. Tonight was no different but about 1/2 an hour after going to sleep, she woke up crying. When she does that in the middle of the night, I'm rarely ever able to get her back to sleep in her crib. She'll fall asleep easily in my arms, but as soon as I try to put her down, her eyes pop open and she starts wailing. I usually just put her in bed with me because she will (almost always) fall right back to sleep. Well, that wasn't really an option at 7:45 tonight.... I knew she was exhausted and after I got her to sleep in my arms without too much trouble, I put her in the crib. Not surprisingly she woke up, started crying, and put her arms up to be picked up. I simply said "It's night-night time", covered her with her blankets as best I could and walked out. She cried steadily for about 5-10 minutes and then off and on, with increasingly longer pauses and shorter crying jags, for another 30 minutes or so. It was tough. Obviously, I have very little stamina when it comes to listening to Isa cry. :) Fingers crossed that this will finally lead to full-on sleeping through the night.