Beach Trip 2011

We are home from our summer vacation at the beach! We convened at Topsail Beach with SuSu, Big Daddy, Aunt Mer, and Aunt Mer's roommate, "Uncle" Josh.  A good time was had by all. Emmy loved the ocean and building sand castles. And of course she loved getting extra attention.

The best part: she slept great. Because I know you're all dying to know, we're finally back into a good sleeping rhythm.  It finally took going back to crying it out (and more vomit). It stunk, but we knew in our hearts it's what she needed, and within 24 hours she was crying less than 10 minutes, and by the next day less than 3 min or not at all. By the fourth night, no tears, and she went to bed perfectly for the baby-sitter (we'd gone out to see Harry Potter and celebrate Mary Ann's birthday).  This continued at the beach.  We have a slightly extended nighttime routine that involves us setting a timer for 5 minutes of rocking/snuggling and then 3-5 minutes of her alone in her bed settling down while we sit in the chair.  (Thank you Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child for the suggestion).  She also has music playing softly and a fancy new nightlight that projects fish onto the ceiling.  No tears, she sleeps through the night, and we're all better rested. Our happy, rested girl has returned.  And, she loves her big girl bed. I think that if we'd just moved to a big girl bed, that would have been fairly smooth, it was the whole anxiety/falling asleep alone thing we had to work through again. Woohoo!

So, back to the beach where we all slept well, it was a lovely week! Hot, humid, relaxing. We walked,  picked up sharks teeth, shells, and rocks, built sand castles, read, slept, and ate. A lot. That's about it. Oh, we did visit the Sea Turtle Hospital which was very cool.

Here are a few pictures. Many more posted in Picasa.