Meet Rocky

If William is near, Rocky the Raccoon Blankie won't be far away! Named by Mommy after one of her favorite Beatles songs, Rocky is William's lovie, and the two are the best of friends!

Poor Rocky gets chewed, slobbered, and worse, but I think he's ok with it. He even goes to Ms. Karen's every morning! Much thanks to Mimi, who got Rocky for William on the day we found out that William was a William. The two have been inseparable pretty much since the day he came home from the hospital.
Rocky is an Angel Dear blankie that we picked up at Ambrosia on the Square in McKinney. They come highly recommended! He is super soft and most importantly, machine washable! :)

Sleep Problems and Solutions!

For the past seven months, every night I thank God that he has blessed David and me with William. I know more fully now what people mean when they say that children are a gift from God. And to top it off, William has been an incredibly easy baby. From the day we brought him home, he was a great sleeper, eater, and generally easy going.
He started sleeping in his crib in his nursery at about six weeks old, mainly because we thought it would help him sleep through the night. Dr. T told us that he was biologically ready to sleep that long, we thought the quiet might help. And it did! Soon after he was sleeping for longer periods, and by the time I went back to work on October 1st, William would go to sleep at 10pm and sleep until about 8am.
But unfortunately, the past month we have seen a regression.
William has been waking up more and more frequently in the middle of the night, and at times David and I have been so tired we have just put William in bed with us. As fun as it is to have a cuddly baby in bed, David and I were not getting the sleep we both needed.
It came to a head this week, when Wednesday night he refused to sleep in his crib at all, we have to go to sleep with him in bed with us to get any rest.
David and I couldn't take it anymore!
We had been reading No Cry Sleep Solution, and have been using it for a bit, but it hasn't helped as much as we would have liked. We have heard very mixed reviews about Dr. Ferber's Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, and decided to give it a shot last night.

I must say, if you've read it, the case study about Betsy was like reading about William, so I was excited that it might offer some help. We followed the guide, letting him cry and self soothe for the given time before we went to comfort him.

It took us about an hour to get him to sleep last night, but it was nice to see him fall asleep on his own and not need David or me to rock him to sleep, only to have his eye come open the minute his back hit his mattress.
Today we tried it with naps, and with his first nap we put him to bed and he played with Rocky, his lovie, and fell asleep without ever crying. David and I were hopeful! For his second nap, he cried for about 30 minutes and then fell asleep. Cutting the time in half certainly made us feel good too,
Tonight, as I'm writing this, I have just finished putting William down. I gave him his night night bottle, then put him to bed with his boppy (paci) and Rocky. He cried for five minutes, then played with Rocky until he fell asleep.
It feels soooo wonderful getting my evening, and my bed, back! Hopefully we continue this trend. And three cheers for Dr. Ferber! :)

Six Months!

On December 26, William celebrated his half birthday! Actually we celebrated on Christmas day, since we spent the 26th in the car driving to Colorado. As you can see from the pictures, W is turning into quite the little ham! He smiles for the camera now, which makes taking pictures so easy!

Here are William's stats for his sixth month:

• Height: 99% percentile! He's a tall guy!
• Weight: 20.5 lbs, putting him in the 95%
• Head: 
• Clothes: barely fitting into 12 month sizes. We're about to move up to 18 months!
• Barely in size 3 diapers. We're about to move to 4s soon!
  Dr. T says he's doing really well, is nice and healthy, and she's impressed he can roll and sit up so well considering his size!

What William's up to in his sixth month:

•  He has fully discovered his feet and they are, by FAR, the most fun body part! 
• He sits up really well and can pretty much sit unsupported
• We tried oatmeal but he was still doing the tongue-trust reflex. We'll try again soon!
• He still LOVES his exersaucer and play mat.
• He is starting to notice the dogs more and more and loves it when they come by to smell or lick him!
• He celebrated his first major holiday, Thanksgiving, this month
• Rolls over when he wants to, which isn't very often!
• Is liking tummy time more and more
• Is becoming quite the talker! He LOVES to babble with his thumb in his mouth. 
•  He is going to have a helmet consultation in January. His head is still a bit flat and we're going to see if a helmet is in order. I hope we can get an Aggie one! :) 
• He's more and more aware of his surroundings 
• Dr. T says he should be getting about 3 teeth fairly soon! He's drooling a TON! 

Happy HALF birthday, William! Mommy and Daddy love you and are so blessed to have you as a son!

Nana and Grandpa

Just before Thanksgiving, Nana and Grandpa made a special trip up from Houston to see William! He had a wonderful time with his grandparents.

I didn't get a picture of Grandpa with William, but I promise he was there too! :)

Thanksgiving

I've got some serious catching up to do!

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving this year. Following Ward family tradition, we woke up bright and early Thursday morning to walk and run the Turkey Trot together downtown. William even got his own race number! He thought the 5K was so easy, he did it in his sleep. ;)

It was a lot of fun, we just wished Michelle and Jon were with us too! Hopefully next year. :)

After the race, we went back home to eat a beautiful Thanksgiving meal prepared by Chefs Bill and Mickey, as usual! We had a relaxing day full of good food, family, and football. And of course, little W was passed around and loved on the whole time. :)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! David and I are so thankful for all the blessings we're received this year, the greatest of which is our happy, healthy little boy who keeps a smile on the faces of all.

Merry Christmas!

I need to do an update or two, badly! But for now, from our family to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

William's Baptism

On Sunday, October 21st, William was baptized at our church, St. Andrew's by our wonderful priests and friends Father Mike and Mother Mary.

 We planned to have William baptized on this weekend as we also had a surprise 30th birthday party for my brother, and my sisters who live out of state were able to join us! This was especially important since Sister and her Mister are William's godparents, along with my brother.

David's parents and sister also joined us as well as my parents! Plus our friends Kate and Dustin, Chris and Kristen, David and Edith, Dan and Tee, and our sweet parish family.

I got William's invites done at Polka Dot Design in Ft. Worth. I've used them before and they were beautifully done and fast. We liked them so much, our Christmas cards are from them too!

After the service, we had a lovely brunch at Gather in Downtown McKinney, where we enjoyed great food like pecan crusted French toast and their mashed potato bar. Plus we enjoyed each other's company, and William got some cuddle time in with his family and friends.

We are so blessed to be members at a church we love, so thankful to have wonderful family and friends, and so excited to raise William as Christ's own forever!