oh...allergies

So I have about 101 posts in my head -- about daycare, about returning to work full-"full" time in the fall, about..well pretty much everything about having a 5.5 month old who is on the _verge_ of being a mobile maniac...

But instead, Im going to give you a quick update on where we stand on the sleep front just in case anyone is in the same boat and this info could be useful. SO if you remember where we left off in this saga -- we were out in CA, Izzy had transitioned from a great sleeper to a horrible sleeper and we thought it was due to the 4-month-sleep-regression. I sure it was a combination of her hitting 4 months, getting her first two teeth and jetlag, BUT we now realize that an even huger piece of it was ALLERGIES. The dairy in CA is amazing so I was eating cheeses, ice cream and yogurt by the boatload. I had eaten it at home but not in such quantities. But after a month + of going back and forth about the virtues of sleep training (which, for the record, I am a fan of, just not when your baby is waking up in tummy pain)....Ive cut out dairy, soy, wheat (gluten) and eggs and Izzy has dramatically gone from 5+ night wakings to maybe 2...sometimes only 1. Its AMAZING..I mean, its a TOTAL pain to have to avoid, well basically, all food, but sleep is SO worth it. We still have a bit more work to do, getting her back to an earlier bedtime and readjusting our bedtime routine so that she can start putting herself to sleep, but we are doing much, much better...

She will be 6 months next week and I cant believe how much she has grown. She is a giggly, squirm ball of fun. At this point she is DYING to crawl but only rocking and scooting. Even so, she seems to get into everything (from a sitting position she will launch herself forward towards whatever she wants)...Watch out, once she is mobile, we are REALLY in for it.