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Bad news? Still no power and KB didn’t nap today. Good news? She went to bed easier than ever and WE HAVE A DISCOUNT CODE FOR YOU! 

We are SO excited to team up with Silli Chews and support their small, woman run business! I posted about this adorable donut teether Kensie got from her Aunt Shell a few weeks back. It’s still her favorite and now we get to offer you guys 10% off any of their teethers with code BOWS10!!! I think KB’s next one will be the phone since she won’t stop putting mine in her mouth…

On to our day…K was great and had a blast, but being off her routine is definitely getting to her. KB took 2 brief naps while I ran some errands and that was it. 

She was extremely happy to wake up and see Titi Char and Uncle Bah Bah!

Her lack of naps created one extra snuggly KB at the gym tonight. I was thankful for Erin and Kristy holding her while I worked out and she gave Kristy the sweetest snuggles. I missed the photo op, but you know Kensie posed for one once she picked her head up from Kristy’s shoulder! 

Not sure what sucks more, still being out of power or that starbucks has no milk so they can’t make me a Salted Carmel Latte. I think it’s the combination that’s really hitting where it hurts. 

All joking aside, I am thankful all we are out is power. I know there’s people that lost a LOT more than that. Looking forward to our lives and all of Florida getting back to normal soon! 

What a long 2 days it has been! We made it through the worst of Hurricane Irma only to lose power at 6am. Kensie wasn’t too phased by it. 

On a positive note, KENSIE SAID MAMA last night!!! About damn time. It was clear as day and Chris, Charlotte, Emily, Carolyn and Sam were all there to witness it. She hasn’t said it again, but beggars can’t be choosers. 😂

Chris and I have been pretty exhausted and stressed out, but thankfully Kens has been amazing the last few days. She’s even replaced one breastfeeding with real food for 3 days in a row now! 

Uncle Rob and Titi Char have been our saviors by taking in the entire Hall clan -dogs and all! Kensie’s had no problem making herself at home. 

If you’re like the rest of us Floridians right now and need a pick me up, here’s a video of Kensie’s latest random “skill” for your enjoyment. 😂

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Kensie was no different than the rest of us today: Stuck inside and shoving her face full of Hurricane snacks. 

She was sure to share with the dogs as usual. 🙄 K actually took her sharing to a whole new level today. 

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KB will straight tackle you for a peanut butter sandwich. 

I learned a fun fact yesterday – I’ve always tried to help squeeze the food out of the pouches for her…well, she apparently doesn’t need my help and if I just let her have at it, she sucks them empty! She likes to feed herself and I like that she eats really food so it’s a win win. 

Kens was pretty pissed about nap number one but after a while she finally stopped yelling and gave in. Nap two was an easy start but way too short lived. She was either eager to join back in on the Hurricane Party or ready to watch the Packers play!

For being stuck inside, it was a pretty great day! Kens loved the extra attention and got to spend a lot of time wandering the house wherever she pleased since there were some extra eyes on her. 

Now Kens is sound asleep and it’s time for the real hurricane party to begin. The winds are starting to kick up and the rain is off and on but for now, we are all good. Hoping to wake up to nothing more than some leaves in the pool and some branches on the street tomorrow! 

Happy Hurricane Eve! We spent the morning doing some final hurricane prep and then decided we all needed to spend the day outside of the house while we still could!

Before we left I tried to put Kensie down for a nap. Holy hell. KB screamed for an HOUR. AN ENTIRE HOUR…before she finally took a whopping 40 minute nap. 

It wasn’t bad crying screaming. It was on and off tantrum/yelling screaming. A whole new adventure. Sooooo…that was fun. I did go in once and so did Chris. I refused to take her out of her crib until she napped because I don’t want her to think she will get her way with her newfound “skill”. Positive reinforcement is the name of the game in the Hall household.

Once she got her shit together (post nap), we headed out to grab lunch with a few friends! 

Party Kens had a great time. (That’s her nickname for when we go to bars. I mean restaurants with bars.) 

After a few hours we moved the party back to the house. Kens got to feel included in our card game by sitting on the couch and trying to get her food in her mouth before the dogs took it from her. 

Kensie loved all the attention she got today and this momma loved all the help everyone gave by entertaining her! 

We hope everyone stays safe through the storm and minimal damage is caused. Especially our friends in South Florida that are getting hit a lot harder than it seems we will over the next 48 hours. Praying you go back to a your home just as it was when you left!  

Kensie said her first “sentence” today (she said “Hi, dah!” – dah is dog and that’s what she calls our lab, Jack), and started using “hi” and “bye” in the right context! All that screaming must have fused some nuerons together or something. 😜

As you can see, our morning was full of drama. If you saw our Instagram story today, you basically got to listen to KB scream and whine. 

I went to workout early when Kens first got up. She’s usually happy for at least 30 minutes playing in Baby jail alone when we first get to the gym. Today she wasn’t having a minute of it. She just wanted mama! That was pretty much the tone of our morning and it led to another day of screaming instead of sleeping and therefore, skipping naps. 

Judging by the random runny nose, funny tongue movements, refusal to sleep, clingy/whinyness – I’m pretty sure homegirl is about to cut some teeth! As I figured that out, I also put her Amber necklace back on. She hadn’t been wearing it since she didn’t seem to be teething. Big mistake. 

Since Kensie wasn’t having it anyways and we will be locked inside Sunday-Monday, I figured we’d go run some errands to get out of the house. 

That was exactly what KB needed!

As you can see, Kensie was thrilled with the new scenery and hammed it up allllll the way through target. Normally when people say hi she stares at them. I can’t usually get her to say “hi”/wave on cue. Today it clicked. Throughout our errands she got easily 20 “omg she’s sooooo cute! Hiiiiiii babyyyyy!!!!!!!!” and each time, she’d at least wave back!!! A lot of them also got a “hhhhiiiiiiieeeeee” with it! 

As the day went by she started waving to anyone and everyone walking by. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Kensie also decided that the cart seats face the wrong way. Once I got her to sit back down, she turned herself around and sat like this though the whole store. 

Such a goof. I promise I was a good mom and made her sit in the right part of the cart while I shopped, but as we stood in lines she kept trying to get out of the seat so we relocated. 

As long as she wasn’t whining, I was happy with it. 

I had to hold her pretty much the entire time I coached this afternoon. At one point I set her down to give my arms a break and I caught these super cute photos of her “helping” Fabian unload his bar. 

I got K to bed late and I think that, combined with the lack of naps, is what I have to thank for an easy start to bedtime tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll be sure to put that necklace on AS SOON as she wakes up in hopes we don’t have Day 3 of a grump butt! 

Kensie took a page out of Irma’s book today and turned into a Cat 5 with no chill. 

I guess all that sleeping she’s been doing finally caught up with her so she went in for a celebrity shot on team no sleep today. 

I coached this morning so we got to the gym right around when her morning nap should have been. I had a lot of work to do but KB wasn’t having it…so she helped. 

While I coached, she was only happy if she was being held, or crawling places she shouldn’t be going. 

I got a short nap out of her in the car on the way to get some plywood and then we went to Aunt Casey’s to help them board up!

I thought when we got home, K would just take a really long afternoon nap. I was so wrong. She was so overtired that she screamed bloody murder if I put her in her crib. Full on screaming, coughing, red splotchy face DRAMA. I went in to calm her down. Once she did, she’d rub her eyes and relax. We gave it another go…nope. More category 5 drama. The back and forth went on for over an hour. I finally said screw it and put her in the playroom. By some stroke of magic she was pretty content in there, even when I left the room. 

We headed back to the gym and I thought she would for sure fall asleep on the way there.  Basically, I was wrong all day. 

Aunt Emmy stopped by with a present for KB (because…spoiled) and she’s super pumped to rock her bee UCF bow and kicks!!! Well, if her chunk feet fit. 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

Kensington capped the day off with fighting bedtime since she was so overtired. After 30 minutes of off and on fussing (at least she took it down to a cat 2 for bedtime) she finally laid down and stopped. 30 minutes after that I see her arms moving up and down. 🙄 How she stayed awake another hour is beyond me but at least she gave up on the vocals. 

In between parenting we got lots of hurricane prep done today. Chris did the hard part… I just ran some errands, attempted to stay awake and tried not to lose my mind with Ms. FussButt. We’ve got water, a generator (frozen breastmilk=priorities), boarded up windows, gas, food, games and booze. Looks like K is going to get a quick introduction into what being a “native Floridian” is all about this weekend! 

Hoping Kensie wakes up in a much better mood tomorrow and remembers how to NAP! 

I’m just going to start this off by saying Emily is the true MVP of the day. KB had a dirty diaper at the gym that was stank enough to take out a small army. I was coaching when Emily discovered the loveliness so she took Kensie and changed her for me! 

Lunch may have attributed to the situation we found ourselves in. We met up with a friend of mine, Bella, that is due with her first baby boy next month! 

Kensie slept great again last night and woke up around 5a to eat. I put her back down and she was back up at 6:30 and I assumed that was it for the day. I picked her up and she went right back to sleep somehow. 

I put her in bed with me and she slept until 8am!! She still napped like a champ, too. After an hour and 40 minutes I had to wake her up so we could make it to lunch. 

The most exciting part of our day? Kensie walked with her walker!!! She’s just been playing with it so I got extremely excited when she started taking steps!

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Only a matter of time before she realizes she can do it with nothing in front of her. 😳

I think we can officially quit calling it “sleep training” and start calling it sleeping!!! K had one wake up last night with a few seconds of noise/almost fussing and went right back to sleep. She followed it up with 2 long naps again today, thanks to her Doc-A-Tot!!!

It was super productive day for me while Kensie hung out with her Grandma, B! She also got another early birthday present! 

B got her a “Little Balance Box”! I had never heard of these, but Brenda did some research since she knew she liked climbing the boxes at the gym and I was looking for a “walk behind” toy and found it!

It slides, can be used as a toddler table later, and the top is made so she can smack/drum on it! K and B spent the afternoon “walking” around the house and playing with anything and everything! 

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Safe to say Kensie had a blast because when B changed her diaper after lunch, she reached for her crib and  went right down for a nap 30 minutes early before I even made it back home from errands! 

Kensie came to the gym with me this afternoon while I coached and she decided to take up DJing. 

She was pretty tired but she made it through, all smiles, and went RIGHT to sleep for me after her bath! 

I’m so thankful we took the weekend to give sleep training a go! I almost changed my mind and cancelled our attempt…seriously, ask Chris. I told him I didn’t think I could do it and I’d just keep feeding her when she wakes at night. Sounds ridiculous but I was nervous because her real, hard crying gives me anxiety, and I KNOW I am not the only mom out there with this, lol. It’s hard to listen to your baby be upset when you know you could go in and fix it so quickly/easily. I’m so grateful she took to it right away, had no real meltdowns and we didn’t have another nightmare of a night like the last time we tried! 

I tried to document what we did in the  weekend posts but I’ve had a few conversations about the details with friends that have asked so I figured I’d share the things we learned from trying it a few months ago (unprepared) to this time that helped us be more successful with it:

– Set a time and stick to it. 10 minutes worked for us. (Last time felt like 20 but it was probably less than 5, lol)

– Only dad can go in after the time limit is up, if they’re still crying. Especially if you still breastfeed. (Oops. I had to. I couldn’t just sit and listen to it!!!)

– Dad can’t pick up. Just pat back/comfort/say it’s ok and time to sleep. (Oops x2)

– Don’t make them cry just to give them what they want in the end, then it is unnecessary and they learn nothing from it. (3 strikes…and we’re out.) 

It truly felt like a hopeless mission the first go around. The Sleep Sense book helped us a ton this time and even though we added the nightlight/pacifier and a dream feed (not recommended in book 🤷🏼‍♀️), I am thrilled it worked for us! (Sidenote: the dream feed is also because I HATE pumping .)

Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself here, but I think I can safely say “goodnight”. 😉

Kensie had a great night of sleep and a great Labor Day to follow! 

We only had ONE wake up last night and Kensie put herself back to sleep in a few seconds. It’s a whole new world over here in the Hall house! 

After a morning gym session, we spent the day out on the boat with friends and KB had a blast! 

I’m not sure where it came from, but today is the first day I can safely say she was a Daddy’s girl. 

She was playing in the water with Chris and when he handed her to me she made her “I’m annoyed” fuss noise and reached back for him. Um, EXCUSE ME?! 😒 

Kens partied right through her nap time and was all smiles and splashes. It was the first time I’ve ever seen her literally fall asleep sitting up. 😂

KB has also mastered her cheek storage trick. When you give Kensie food, she eats some, and stores the rest in her cheeks. I can’t make this stuff up. 

She had some turkey when we first got on the boat and about an hour later she’s in the water making a chewing motion. She proceeded to stick her fingers in her mouth and pull out a piece of turkey. 🤦🏼‍♀️😂 Kens then did the same thing with her cucumber. 

While we are on the topic of food, we had our first public embarrassment at dinner. Kens decided to grab the placemat and rip it off the table. There also happened to be a plate on said placemat when she did that. Whoops. 

Not only did she shatter a dish, she made a nice mess so they really wouldn’t forget her. 

Oye. 

So thankful for a long weekend for an extra family day and more fun memories with friends! (Also thankful for all of the sleep we got in…let’s hope that continues.)

The long weekend isn’t even over yet (thankfully) but I can already say it’s been a completely successful weekend of sleep training!!!

Night one couldn’t have gone any better. By some miracle, Chris didn’t have to go in her room ONE SINGLE TIME! 

I went in for a dream feed at 10pm which helped me a ton because at 10:55 she woke woke up. I knew she wasn’t hungry, so I watched the monitor and stuck to our 10 minute time limit. She never got to the gasping/hyperventilating cry (thankfully because I would have sent Chris in before the 10 minute mark, lol) and at 11:04, she laid back down and went to sleep! 9 minutes exactly. Go figure! 

Her second wake up was at 1:15a and she fussed for 7 minutes before going back to sleep. Woke again at 4 and was up for  maybe 3 minutes and back to sleep again!!! IT’S A MIRACLE!!!  

I honestly think the nightlight was key for her. Not being in a pitch black room and able to get her pacifier on her own and comfort herself seemed to help a ton. 

K had a fun Saturday morning and a CRANKY Saturday afternoon. 

After Kensie’s afternoon nap – her mood was not exactly my favorite. She was in one of those “I need attention every second” super whiny moods…where even if you did give her attention at some points she was still whining and we were sure what she wanted. 🙄

We went to visit Uncle Will, Aunt Ashley and Henley and Kensie got an early birthday present from them and Aunt Shell to help with her sleeping!!!

I thought the first night going so smoothly was a miracle so I still can’t wrap my head around last night/today; and I completely attribute it to the doc-a-tot. 

Y’all. Kensie slept until 8:15am. EIGHT. FIF. TEEN!!! This did involve 2 wake ups but she was back down in less than 5 minutes both times. I fed her when she woke up at 6 and put her back down just to see if she’d let me sleep in longer. Sure enough, back to sleep she went!!! 

I got up at 7:20 and made a coffee with intention of enjoying it in the peace and quiet, but instead I put it on my nightstand and went back to sleep. I had to take FULL advantage of what was happening. 

I wanted to keep Kensie on the 2-3-4 nap schedule today since it works really well for her. Today was no different. The timing was perfect and she took the longest naps, ever! (Well, “ever”…since she was a little baby that slept all the time). 

Her normal morning nap is 45 minutes at most. Today? 90! Afternoon nap? Normally 60-90 minutes. Today I woke her up after almost 2 hours so I could make sure she’d go to sleep tonight! 😳

I don’t know if the naps were just because she was up a lot more and cranky the day before or what, but today was purely magical. 😂 I really think the Doc-a-Tot is a life saver for us. K used to love being swaddled and it was the only way she’d sleep. Now she tosses and turns all over her crib. This keeps her from moving so much and she seems more than comfortable!

In between naps today KB was back to being her extra happy self!  We made a quick trip to the store for some party supplies and Kensie had me DYING laughing in the middle of Publix. I legitimately think people were wondering what was wrong with me…

She was trying to EAT THE BREAD THROUGH THE PLASTIC. 😂😂😂 I kept telling her to stop but I also couldn’t stop laughing so it wasn’t too effective. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Once K woke up from her afternoon nap, well, I should say once I woke her up…she joined in on the pool party action! She tried black beans (not a fan), discovered she loves cucumbers, climbed in and out and in and out and in and out of the pool (from the stair), and fun fact: she can drink from a straw. I was unaware of that when she kept attempting to drink my drink…🤦🏼‍♀️

And for one more record breaking moment in the beautiful world of Sleep Training, Chris put Kensie to bed tonight and she didn’t make a PEEP. I don’t know how to describe to you guys what a huge thing this is. That has never happened. She usually screams if I’m not the one to put her to bed. 

I’m so proud of our smart little sleeper and looking forward to not only sleeping through the night, but praying this later morning wake up time and long naps remain a thing, too!