3 Nights...And Counting?

Almost every time that Copper has gone to bed has been by me nursing her to sleep. There were 3 nights within a week about a month ago where she put herself to sleep after nursing (this is in her crib, not in our bed or the guest bed with me laying next to her). I thought then that we were on to something, but it was an anomaly. Our routine is that when she shows signs of being tired, usually between 8-9, I take her to her room and sometimes read a few books, and then she nurses while I read and she falls asleep. I then gently place her in her crib where she sleeps a good 10-12 hours and wakes around 8 am. If she ever wakes up in the process of laying her down, it's back to square one, the boob. Three nights ago Copper ate and ate and then was done and sat up. So I turned off the light and tried rocking her to sleep. She rested her head on my shoulder, let her body relax and then did her crazy yelling thing, "Da! Da! Da!" for 5 minutes. She didn't seem to be getting any closer to sleep so I put her in her bed. She stood at the railing and hugged me for a long time until I turned on her mobile as a distraction. She played with that for a while and then came back over to the railing for some half assed fussing. I brought our chair next to her crib so she knew I was near. I ignored her fussing and it never escalated and after about 10 minutes she laid down and fell asleep. That night I was in her room about an hour. Last night was pretty much the same gig only shorter, 45 minutes. Tonight (drum roll please) was only 20 minutes. She ate, sat up, we hugged, I laid her down with her stuffed Sheepy, covered her with a blanket, gave her a kiss on the forehead, said goodnight, and walked out the door. She was asleep with out fussing within 5 minutes of me leaving. May this be a sign of good things to come.

And...I only nursed her 3 times today! I've been down to 4 for over a month, but cut out her afternoon feast today. She's finally getting down the whole sippy cup technique and is getting some cow's milk in her tummy. More cow's milk equals less mommy's milk.

Learning to Walk

Copper Jo is getting so stinkin' big so stinkin' fast! This is her 1st day using her Y Bike and she has it nailed. She appears to have her fathers ability to pick up any skill and master it quickly. This was shot on Dec 2 and up until then, we have given her minimal opportunity to even use her legs to walk. She would work her way around part of the coffee table and her Grandpa had just recently started holding her hands to help her walk, but I really thought that it would take more than 1 try to figure out her walker. My kid's awesome.