It's crazy to think Elijah ever had a feeding problem at the beginning. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. He's such a chunkster and I love it! Not just because it's so adorable but because I know he's healthy. He's not overweight in any way he just loves his mama's milk and I definitely love nursing him. I thought at as he got older it would just be so natural that I wouldn't think much about it in terms of bonding but I do. The bond just grows as he gets older and I continue to nurse him. I know this is weird for some of you to read (sorry) but it's a very big deal to me. Elijah and I have come far since those first few weeks after he was born. He has experienced a lot within this last month. A ton of firsts! Too many for this mama's liking. He had his first move, attended his first wedding, had his first Christmas and New Year, grew in not just one but FOUR teeth, and we started him on BLW. BLW (Baby Led Weaning) is mostly just taking out the puree's and jars of baby food and replacing it with a hands on experience. So far Elijah has had green beans, bananas, avocados, and peach flavored yogurt. Mostly during this experience he just plays with his food until we put it in his mesh feeder but it's the learning process that I love most about BLW. Watching him smash his food and then realize he can eat it from his hands is quite entertaining. 

Ok. Now on to the biggest thing. We have started sleep training Elijah within these last couple of weeks. This last month and a half Kaleb and I have not slept for more than 2 hours at a time. I have no idea what happened but my baby who would sleep at least a 5 hour stretch at the beginning turned into this kid who refused to sleep. He will not fall asleep unless one of us is holding him (usually me) and will then wake up almost instantly if we lay him down in his crib so we resorted to co sleeping for a few weeks but both of us got fed up pretty quickly with that. So we started teaching him to sleep in his crib. Some nights are easier than others but over all he is still waking every 2 hours and won't go back to sleep unless I nurse him. Well, if you're a parent you can definitely understand what a toll this has been taking on us. Especially me since I stay at home with him. Kaleb and I are pro CIO (the sleep method called Cry It Out) but have never done it because we were waiting to see what his pediatrician thought. Yesterday we got the go ahead from her. We talked about his weight and how he can definitely go at least 5 hours at night without nursing since he is on the high end of the scale for weight and we also discussed the plain and simple fact that Elijah has to learn how to go to sleep on his own instead of constantly being put to sleep by us. I cried in front of our pediatrician when she told us we could go ahead try CIO. That is how much of a toll this sleep situation has taken on me.  I realize that some of you reading this are completely against CIO and that's ok! That's the beauty of parenting. There are so many different opinions and thoughts on these things but if there's one thing I've learned over these last 6 months it's this-Do what works for you! Co sleeping wasn't working for us but CIO might so we're moving forward and tomorrow night we will put this method into effect and see how it works for our family. It might be a total bust or it might finally give us the sleep we've been lacking this last month and a half. Either way I ask you to please lift up my family in prayer as we try and discover how to help Elijah sleep better.