Sleeping Update 1

So last night we put him to bed around 8:15pm. He fell asleep while nursing, so there was no crying. He woke up at 11:00pm and cried for a couple of minutes. Then he didn't wake up until 4:30am! At that time, I went and reswaddled him and patted his butt until he fell asleep. (Since it was his first night without eating, I wanted to give him a little extra comfort.) He woke up again at 6:25am, and I fed him then. Then I put him back down and we woke up again at 8am.

Yea! I'm pleased with this progress, and really amazed that he actually does need to just cry for a few minutes. It was never terribly hard to get him to go to sleep. But I think that us bouncing him until his eyes were drooping was only helping him fall asleep, even if he was technically still awake when we laid him down. And I think that's why he woke up so often during the night--he just didn't know how to make himself go back to sleep. So that's what we're trying to remedy.

He's taking his second nap of the day now. He's cried for about 10 minutes each time before falling asleep.

Experimenting with Sleeping

I'm getting tired of not sleeping. Yesterday, after having gotten up four times the night before, I spent the day at the church office doing stuff to prepare for the Christmas Tea. By 3pm I had a painful headache and was not looking forward to metroing home. Thankfully, my awesome husband came to pick me up at 5:30pm, bring his computer so that he could finish his work from home.

After reading in several places that babies over four-months old and of healthy weight don't really need to eat during the night and that continuing to feed them is just beginning a bad habit, I decided that it's time for me to get more sleep. But I have been very fickle about applying parenting strategies in the past, so I ask Rich to just decide what we should do and then help me implement it.

He decided that we will stop feeding him at night and that Luke will have an 8pm bedtime. Also, we're going to let him cry himself to sleep. We'll go in at regular intervals, but only to comfort by talking to him or patting him. No picking him up and bouncing for 10-20 minutes!!

It went okay for our first night! We had put him down to sleep the old way at 7:30pm. He slept for an hour, during which we agreed on the new method. Then at 8:30pm, he woke up. We told him to go back to sleep and started the new method. According to Rich, he cried for 50 minutes. (I had fallen asleep by the end of it.) He woke up again around 11:30pm, but went back to sleep. Then at 12:20am, he woke up and I fed him. Another wake up at 3:30am. I went and reswaddled him and gave him the paci--without picking him up. He fussed a bit, but went back to sleep. Then around 6am, he was generally fussy, in and out of sleep until 7am, when I got him out and fed him. We got up after that.

Today I've been putting him down awake for his naps. He's cried about 15 minutes each time. Thankfully, he doesn't have a terribly bad/sad cry. It sounds more like frustration and crankiness. Much different than his distress cry.

And! I just happened to flip to "The Tyra Show" today, and she had moms on who were talking about their problems with babies! She had on this lady who wrote the book The Sleep-Easy Solution, or something like that. The lady said that in their medical practice, to encourage sleeping, they use the acronym BEDS. Bedtime routine, environment, down awake and schedule. I think that's a great happy medium of all the theories. OK, maybe except for Attachment Parenting, but whatever.

So we'll see how this goes! I get so excited when I think about sleeping 8 hours in a row again...

Thanksgiving in Charleston

This Thanksgiving, we went to Charleston, SC, where Rich's brother and his wife live. Rich's parents and sister drove up from FL and met us there. We went down on Monday and returned home on Friday. Here are a few pics from the trip.

We visited the Angel Oak, which was very cool. It's a really old oak tree with limbs sprawling all over the ground.
Rich and Luke at The Sanctuary, the hotel on Kiawah Island where Greg works.

I really love several of the pics that Sarah took of Luke. In this one, you can see that he's really almost crawling. He gets up on all fours, then moves both knees forward (one time each) before collapsing and wildly flailing all limbs at once. I expect he'll be crawling fairly well within a couple of weeks.

Also on this trip, Rich and I noticed that his face started to change again. When they're young, their "look" can change on almost a daily basis. Now it changes more slowly. But this is a good pic to show what a boy face he's getting now.

Sarah put Rich in charge of frying the turkey. He did a great job, following instructions to the letter: long sleeves, pants, work gloves, eye goggles, lowering the turkey in very slowly. :)

Em, Rich, Rachel and Luke on the beach at The Sanctuary.
Rachel with Luke. His first time on the beach!! He wasn't scared or enthralled. Just mildly curious.

Luke with Grandpa Bradley

With Grandma Rose

We spent a lot of time lounging and watching movies. We watched "Batman Begins," "Kingdom of Heaven," "The Family Stone," "King Arthur," and "The Illusionist."

Luke with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Greg

The Thanksgiving table

Our family on Lukie's first Thanksgiving

We had such a lovely time at Greg and Sarah's. They were very gracious hosts and we felt so relaxed the whole time we were there. Rich and I really like to connect with our families and for them to feel connected with us and with Lukie B. especially.

In other news, I cut Rich's hair for the first time! It looks pretty good, I think. But I had my expectations low. It's not his normal style, and it was very trusting of him. I just like it when his hair is pretty short, but it costs too much for us to get it cut once a month. So I've been wanting to learn to cut hair for a while.

Also, I finally found a bumper for Lukie's crib! I had been looking eBay and Craigslist ever since we got the crib. I couldn't find one that I liked for under $15. But I stopped at Goodwill in SC, and found one by Guess Home for $3.99!

[Pictures of the crib and Rich's hair to follow in the next couple of days.]

Dinner with Diane & Dragging Luke

OK, so this is a bit cheap of me to retroactively date this post, but I wanted it to come before the Thanksgiving pictures. We had Diane over for dinner for fajitas, and I wanted y'all to see this cute pic of her and Luke.


Also, I discovered that Luke does this when I try to "have fun" by pulling him down the hallway.

New Crib and Thoughts on Pets

I have been searching for a crib for a couple of months now. Initially I thought we might co-sleep for a while, not knowing how long. Then I thought we might move into a different place, so I was just waiting. I finally decided that we'd need a regular-size crib eventually, because he would be in one into his toddler years.

I searched on Craigslist for free cribs, and found a couple, but I only got one. It was missing hardware, and turned out to be impossible to put together. Plus, the company was in existence anymore, and I was concerned about safety.

Finally I happened on a listing for the exact model of crib I wanted, in the color I wanted, with a mattress included. All for $50. They had been used for just six months and were in great condition. Today I looked up how much the package would be new. About $140 for the crib and $120 for the mattress. Not bad!

First time in the crib

Also, after having Luke, I have a whole new perspective on pets. They're like your children, but only before you have children. After you have a child, the pet gets put on the back-burner. But! Not to your child! The child loves the pet! So the cycle continues and the pet must stay.

Rich and I used to love George Lubbers like we currently love Luke. As soon as we got home, it was "Hi George!" and "How was your day, George?" We would take George out and play with him and laugh at all the funny things he said. Now we're like, "If that bird does not stop screaming soon, I am going to break something..." But Luke thinks GL is just awesome. And if Luke could remember things, he we be very upset if we got rid of GL. That's my hypothesis, at least.

Now I understand why parents are loathe to get pets, yet children beg for them. The parent is like, "Do I really need one more thing in my life to annoy me?" But the child cherishes the pet as its own.

Happy B-day Grandma Rose

Random Pics on Rich's Birthday

This is Luke playing at the Swiatkowskis. His balance is getting pretty good, and he can stand on his own for a minute or two if he's supported by something. This one I took awhile ago. It was the first time we put him in his little clip-on dining chair.

This is Luke and Carolina (with their moms) at the fundraising fashion show that our church put on in late September.

Latest Activity: Bouncing. We borrowed this bouncing seat from the Swiatkowskis (Carolina's family)--the same family who lent us the Bebe Pod seat and our co-sleeper. It's such a blessing to be just behind another child in development! (Luke is four months younger than Carolina.)
He bounced himself so much, that afterward, he had to take a little nap. He slept for about thirty minutes, woke up, and started bouncing again.

Luke and Rich at the fashion show.


In honor of Rich's birthday, here's one of father and son asleep. Luke wouldn't settle down, and Rich finally got him to sleep with some snuggling.

I love you, honey. I really believe that I am married to the best man on earth. I love being your wife. Happy birthday; I hope today is so fun for you. :)

Flailing Arms in Walker