Roly Poly

Oh the time has come again!  I got a good 4 week run with a full nights sleep, but now the little monkey is rolling over and does so in his sleep.  He's actually not to bad about sleeping on his tummy....I think he likes it.  Hunter used to roll over and get all mad that he couldn't roll back.  This one just keeps right on sleeping.  So its not that he wakes me up to roll him over...it's more my nerves about SIDS that keeps me awake at night.  Almost as soon as I put him down he rolls right over, and I try to flip him back around (for my sanity), but I think he really enjoys it.  My only saving grace is my video monitor that zooms in so I can see his face.  Being that he JUST turned 3 months and is already flipping....I can see the crawling and the walking coming way before I'm ready for it.  Yikes!

Oh....and even if you have a small place, I highly recommend the video monitors.  It's just a peace of mind for me...otherwise I would totally be up in his room every 10 minutes.  I know it's not a necessity for the baby, but it is for me!

Rollin' with the Nap Times

I was getting a little frustrated trying to keep up with a nap "schedule" for Will. He's fairly predictable, but all of a sudden I'd see him rubbing his face into his blankey at 8am. I'd ask him if he's tired and he would zombie-half-asleep-walk into his bedroom. I'd plop him in his bed and he wouldn't fight me one bit. Instead he would lay there and drift off. It gets really frustrating when there are errands I need to run and can't just let him sleep the day away, because frankly sometimes, he would. Not that I'm complaining in the least! He went through his stint of waking up at 5am. That was not fun, but he would take two pretty long naps during the day. Just when I think he's ready to drop down to 1 nap a day, we are back into a random schedule again.

I think finally I'm just coming to terms with it. He's my child, and he likes to sleep, just like me. And he'll sleep whenever he feels like it. Some days I could take a nap at 10am, some I could use one at 3pm... Will is no different. These days following his surgery, he's been waking up at 7am, the earliest; some days it's closer to 8am. He'll be up for an 45 minutes to an hour and then he is rubbing his face. I put him back to bed and he sleeps for two hours. It crazy! It's uncanny that I can make and eat my breakfast in peace in the morning. Then after I clean up my mess, I can plop down with my morning coffee, laptop, and watch the World Cup while I work. I better stop this nifty routine before I get used to it and throw a hissy fit when I have to give it up. It's weird to feed him breakfast at 10:30am or even 11am, but he seems to be ok with it. It's a little nicer to have his eating times bumped a little later anyways so we can all eat dinner at the same time. 

Yes, it makes it a little difficult to get out of the house early, but I guess that means it's my role to adapt. So we grocery shop at 3pm instead of 10am. Oh well. Not the end of the world. If I have a happier, well rested child, getting out of the house later in the day isn't a big deal.

I'm sure it will phase itself out in a few weeks like the rest of his little sleep schedules do, but in the mean time, I'm rollin' with the punches. It only took me 15 months to figure this little bit of info out. I guess I'm not so quick on the uptake sometimes. But hey, I'm still new here. And besides, there's plenty to keep me busy while he's asleep... plenty.

About the Picture above: This is just after Day 2 of swim lessons. He could barely keep his eyes open as I was buckling him in. It was so funny! Learning to kick in the water is hard work! He slept from around noon until 3:30pm this day. Glorious!

The Curse of a Calm Child

I have to say....I am SO lucky to have two children who are really....well...calm. Even the newbie is really chill. It's a blessing, for sure, but also a bit of a curse.  He rarely cries, and lately has been sleeping a couple 2 hour naps during the day, and he sleeps an average of 6 hours a night.  WONDERFUL!  You can put him down awake and he'll drift off by himself no problem.  He's so darn chill, that he gives you about a 20 minute warning of fidgets and coos before he actually starts crying to be fed.  Anyway.....thinking that my new child is super awesome, I kinda took for granted the things that babies naturally go through, and during my night time duty, totally forgot how to soothe a newborn.  Jagger was having some sort of troubles and didn't want to be set down in his bed and he just kept crying every time I set him down.  My mind went blank.  I kept trying to feed him and changed his diaper 3 times, burped him and did bicycle to make him fart, and for 4 hours couldn't figure out what to do.  It didn't occur to me that sometimes babies just want to be soothed and held and cuddled!  WHHHAATTTT? MY CHILD???? He's asking for something?  He never does that?  Duh, Lani.

Calmness, chill-ability, and independence are great....but they do make you forget the basics of being a mom which is to be there to cuddle and support the baby.  I love to do that anyway, but I have to keep reminding myself that he's still going to have the basic baby issues and I have to remember how to go about handling it!

We think we're pros...but we're so, so wrong...

So it's been about a month since baby number two has graced our presence and we couldn't be happier. It's funny, though, how you forget how tough those first few months are. Sonny and thought it was no big deal bringing him home, I wasn't in the least bit nervous. That first night home was hilarious (now), but we thought we were so cool and could totally handle it.

In the hospital, we so opted for the baby-go-in-the-nursery-at-night-and-see-you-in-the-morning thing. Having the baby room in? Yeah, no thanks. He's going to be "rooming in" for the next 18 years.....I think I can have him stay elsewhere for the first four nights. So anyway, the first night home we didn't even talk about how we were going to work it, who was going to get up to do what.....we thought we were experts since we'd already done it once! And since I'm breastfeeding, we were under the impression that I had to do the major night stuff anyway. Well I apparently forgot that I had gotten cut in half and after the third time getting up that night...my back, hips, lower abs, and the incision were screaming at me! Sonny looked over and asked if I was ok and I started crying. I couldn't help it....I felt like I couldn't do it. We established a system where Sonny would get up to get the baby, hand him to me, get up to do the change, hand him to me again, then get up to put the baby down back in the crib. While I was feeding, Sonny was "re-sleeping"....and while Sonny was changing....I was "re-sleeping." After a couple days....we realized that this is the exact schedule we had with Hunter, but you forget after 2 years of constant schedule changing.

It's been a pretty crazy month with 2 little bambinos....and although I have huge dark circles under my eyes and have forgotten what a full nights sleep feels like, it's getting better and I know we'll get through it. Jagger is down to a pretty good routine now of waking up about once a night, usually after a 4-5 hour sleeping stint....and then 3 hours after that one.....and then feeding every 2 hours during the day. It's hectic, it's tiring, and it's the most rewarding thing I've ever done. We were totally settled on having one...but we couldn't imagine our lives without two.

Me + 5:30am...

It seems like much of parenthood is an experiment. The process of getting and being pregnant is a freakshow of an experiment in itself - the swelling, growing, stretching on top of the alien movements you can feel and see! While the process of having the baby and then trying to figure out the baby is another source of scientific research in your own mind, body, and soul while trying not to bite your husband's head off because you can't remember the last time you slept more than an hour at a time. Once you get passed the eat, sleep, poop regimen, the real fun begins. As my friend simply put it, "Now you're a real Mom." These days, a newborn seems like a cakewalk.

Once upon a time, Will and I had an easy going schedule. He napped regularly, didn't fight me a whole lot, and ate like a champ. Now... Well, let's just say we're seeing some of his "personality". When the walking began, so did an attitude. I know part of his misbehaving is him frustrated because he can't tell me what he wants, so I'm trying to understand that and not get too upset. However, when he is my own personal alarm at 5:30am, I want to scream. Patience and understanding go out the window and all I want to do is put a pillow over my head. I not-so-lovingly say a few words on my way to his room as Hubby either pretends to sleep or says "Honey, be nice", but the second I open his bedroom door and see his sad, upset little face, all that disappears.

If there is one thing I love to do more than anything, it's SLEEP! I used to sleep until noon if I could. When I was in high school, I had a zero period and had to really push myself to get to school on time at 7am because I'm just not a morning person. I know my neighbor and carpool buddy would get frustrated with me calling her almost everyday saying that I was running a little late, like it was a surprise. Thank goodness it was an artsy class and he let us do our own thing when class started. Sometimes I'd even bring my makeup to school so I could check in with him and excuse myself to the bathroom while I put my face on. Sorry Mom. Ha ha! I guess that's just where my sister and I are polar opposites. She's had a zero period every year of high school and she's up and moving before I've completed my REM cycle.

Anyways... sorry, I got sidetracked...

Even I managed to make it through the newborn phase of seeing every hour of everyday. Watching the sunrise and set was a crazy thing that I thought I'd never see in one day, let alone several days in a row. I could find an episode of Family Guy on at just about anytime of day. Now I'm sadly trying to reason with a 14 month old. Here is how our conversations have been going:

Me: "Will, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease sleep in until at least 7am. 8am is better, but 7am is manageable."

Will: [grunt] [scrunchy face]

Me: "Mommy doesn't like waking up early. Mommy likes to sleep. I am much nicer when I wake up at 7am vs. 5am. I'll take you to Disneyland if you don't wake up until 7am!"

Will: "Bababababba rrrrrrrrrrrrraahhhhh rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrafff"

So...I think I'm getting through to him. Maybe a couple more conversations like this one and we'll be back on track. I know a good portion of this is teething. Seriously, teething is the bane of my existence. I am so jealous of Lani and other parents of kids who have no problem teething. Will now has all his molars, plus 8 front teeth. Now his incisors are coming in. It's non-stop with this kid. His first couple teeth came in pairs and we got a week or two break in between. Now we're lucky if there's a couple day break in between.

On a related note, Target has Dunkin' Donuts coffee on sale this week. I am now officially restocked on tasty coffee to inject into my veins to keep me moving!

P.S. Don't forget to enter in our Parents Magazine Giveaway!

Phases

Talking to Lani today got me thinking how we value sleep so much more now. When Will was first born (and Lani said the same about Hunter), we couldn't wait for our little guy to wake up, open his eyes, make a funny face, and maybe make some noises at us. With number two, Lani said she's already leaving him alone when he starts to stir a little bit hoping he'll go back to sleep. Sleep is oh, so precious.

Will is just over a year now, and I'm back to not showering until late, late, late in the day on most days. If I don't shower 1st thing in the morning when Hubby is home to watch Will, it isn't going to happen till Will goes down for his nap in the late afternoon. Just when I think we're on a good schedule and I can kind of predict when I can accomplish some things around the house, he throws me a curveball. Lately, it's been teething. Teething is a bear to deal with normally with him. His front 8 teeth came in pairs and made him wake up screaming his face off two or three times a night and he was fussier than usual during the day. Usually, he's a happy-go-lucky kid!

Now we are getting molars. Two of them at the same time, on the bottom. It has been three weeks of unpredictability and major crankiness! For a while, I wasn't sure he was my kid because he was just pissed off all the time. The slightest thing would set him off. Sometimes just looking at him was enough to cause a total meltdown. We had one day last week that was just God awful. Quite possibly the worst day I've had with him since he was a wee-tot and I didn't have the whole feeding/sleeping schedule down yet. I didn't get a chance to shower all day because he napped for 20-25 minutes at a time and was screaming the rest of the time. Pain meds, teething rings, popsicles, Nothing Helped! I was ready to ask for a refund. Where's my receipt? Let's take him back! Then relief came. I think that night he slept through the night for the first time in two weeks. The last couple days have been progressively better and better. Today was great!

It's just interesting how a year ago I was wishing he would sleep for more than 30 minute increments so I could shower, clean up the house a little, and make myself something to eat. Then we had a good run of getting on a fairly regular schedule with 2 or 3 naps and I could still get out of the house because we had the infant carrier car seat and I could plug him in and off we would go. Now we're somewhere between 1 and 2 naps a day. Today, I think he had 3 naps. Teething just really throws everything off. I think he's going through a major growth spurt on top of it all because his 2 of his naps were 2+ hours today. And it seems like every time I do laundry there are less and less pants that get to go back in his drawer because they turn into high waters on him. Hopefully when we are officially down to 1 nap a day, life will get on an easy schedule again. It would be nice to do more than one errand a day ...

Nap time curveball

Lani warned me about this a few months ago and I have been dreading it ever since...the Nap Time Curveball. Just when I have this 3 nap schedule down pat, Will is ready to ditch one of his naps and is down to 2 naps. We had the 2 nap schedule down pretty good for about a week and a half. Just when I thought we were in the clear, BAM! curveball and now we have been back to three naps (sometimes 4) for the last 4 days.

I'm sure it's all part of the adjustment. And I'm sure that there's a few other factors that are making this transition a little more funky - such as the bottom tooth that has been on the brink of breaking through his gums for 3 weeks now. He also woke up with a runny nose yesterday that went away. Two days ago he woke up with a touch of a fever that caused me to cancel my sushi dinner date night with Yvett at the last minute (sorry again!).

The major bummer is that his naps used to be 1.5-2 hours which gave me time to clean up the breakfast or lunch mess, shower, and pick up the house to get ready for round 2. Now I'm lucky if his naps are an hour long. It also makes getting out of the house a real challenge because by the time you clean up, get yourself cleaned up, and get ready to go, it's nap time again. I'd rather sacrifice getting out of the house for my baby to get some good rest, but come on!

Any advice or tricks for surviving the nap switch? I'm more than happy to take them! Oh, and that is his new face...the scrunch face. I have no idea where he learned it, but he does it randomly and it's the funniest thing. Sometimes it's accompanied by a grunt to make you think he's filling up is diaper, but he's not... Crazy kid!

Thank you Dr. Ferber!

As you know, WEB has had some sleeping issues the last month or so. He was doing so well up until 5.5 months of age or so. Then we got hit with teething (his bottom two teeth at the same time!) and his first cold. Since then, it was almost as bad as when he was a newborn. He would go to bed at around 8pm usually without a problem, then he was up at midnight, 2am-ish, 3am-ish, 4:30am-ish, 6am, 7am, and finally up for the morning around 8am. That was definitely no way for Hubby and I to live, walking around like a hideous pair of zombies.

In a desperate attempt to fix this issue, I picked up The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program book, which helped me understand why his body is waking up at these 90 minute intervals, or multiples of 90 minutes. This book really helped me get his nap schedule on track and pay attention more to his tired cues. On the same trip, I picked up Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr. Ferber. I read the cliffs notes version of his method in my Baby Bible - aka Baby 411 book. We tried this method when WEB was 3.5 months or so, but I guess we weren't desperate enough to listen to him cry for a little bit. Now we were desperate so we'd try anything...

We started the process Saturday night. Hubby has Sunday and Monday off from work, so I figured he at least had a couple of days to nap during the day to recover from this process. WEB went down without a fight at around 9pm. Dr. Ferber suggests bumping WEB's bedtime back an hour or so to make sure that they're especially tired, in hopes of making the crying process a little less wrenching. When he woke up we waited 5 minutes before we went in. The rule is you don't pick him up when you go in to check on him. You're just there to reassure him that you're there, re-adjust him if he needs to be, and rub his back. Only spend a minute or two in there, and then it's time to leave and close the door. Closing the door was key for us. I don't think we could've handled his cries unless they were muffled by the door.

Then you wait 7 minutes and repeat the process. Then up it to 10 minutes. The thing that was better explained in Dr. Ferber's book than anywhere else that I read the cliffs notes was the intervals. He tells you to do what you're comfortable with. If you can't stand hearing your baby cry for more than 3 minutes, then you start with that and just add 2 or 3 minutes to your first time to get each interval. Then example he had in the book was 5, 7, 10, and that was perfect for us. So your final increment is 10 minutes. If you have to go in every 10 minutes for the next hour, so be it. Fortunately, WEB was a pro. We went 5, 7, 10, 10, 10 minutes and then he was out. He woke up at around 2am and we were all in bed and asleep by 3am. He woke up again around 5am, but it was short lived. He was back to sleep in no time and was up for the morning around 7am.

The 2nd night was better. Again, we bumped his bedtime closer to 9pm. He went down without too much of a fight again. When he woke up at around 2am, we started the count at 7 minutes and only had to check on him twice at the 7 and 10 minute intervals. He woke up again around 5am, but when I started the clock to go in after 7 minutes, he was back to sleep before then. I didn't even have to get out of bed.

Last night, the 3rd night, was awesome. He went to bed at 8pm without a fight. When he woke up and got fussy in the middle of the night, I started the clock to go in after 10 minutes but he was back to sleep closer to 5 or 7 minutes later. I never had to get out of bed last night. Better yet, this morning Hubby went in to get him up for the morning at 6am when he usually is up, but by the time Hubby got into WEB's room he was back to sleep. Hubby went to chill on the sofa, thinking WEB would wake up any minute, but they both fell asleep until 8am! WEB slept for 12 hours! Yay!

Dr. Ferber says you can try this method when they're 3 or 4 months old. We attempted it somewhere between there, but I guess we weren't desperate enough to really stick to our guns to let it work, and WEB was doing pretty well on his own. I'm thinking that part of the reason it was relatively easy now is that he's now 6.5 months old. He just needed a little bit of a push in the right direction.

Now hopefully these good habits continue. I'm sure we will have to revisit a quick version of this sleep training if teething or a cold disrupts WEB's self soothing abilities down the road, but at least now we have yet another tool in our bag of tricks to use that will get us all back on track.

Give & Take

The last month or so of WEB's sleep habits have been pretty awful. First, he was teething, so he'd wake up screaming bloody murder at around 3am. Now, the last two weeks he's been sick with his first cold, so he wakes up screaming several times a night because he can't breathe. Tuesday night was particularly ugly.

Here's a little time line of how it all went down:
6:30pm - WEB asleep in his crib
10:00pm - Hubby and I go to bed
11:00pm - WEB wakes up screaming. Hubby goes to get him and rock him back to sleep...an hour later...he's still screaming

Midnight - I relieve Hubby and take over WEB. I try to rock him, feed him, medicate him, to no avail. After getting him calmed down in my arms for a few minutes, I try to gently place him in his crib. The second his bum touches the mattress he starts screaming again. I hold him and he's fine. 2 1/2 hours later...

2:30am - WEB and I finally part ways and I get him to sleep in his crib. I hurry back to bed and pass out.
3:00am - Hubby is up with WEB again. A fidgety, fussy, screaming baby in his arms, he tries to sleep on the sofa with him in hopes of getting WEB to sleep so he can. 2 hours later...

5:00am - I get up with WEB. I lay on the sofa with him to try and get him to sleep in my arms...

6:00am - WEB wakes up screaming in my arms. I get him to go back to sleep with me on the sofa.
7:00am - WEB wakes up screaming in my arms. I get him to go back to sleep with me on the sofa.
8:00am - WEB wakes up screaming in my arms. Hubby comes in and we both look at each other with zombie eyes.

Hubby reluctantly went to work, but I was expecting him to call me saying he was coming home early. Surprisingly, he didn't call. I guess they were short staffed, so he wanted to, but just couldn't. After thinking and worrying about him all day, I decided to give Hubby the night off. He is really good at helping take care of WEB at night at least once or twice when he wakes up even though I stay at home all day now and he works. Since WEB and I got our cold, I've been worried that Hubby would get it too. Having him lacking sleep would definitely make him a prime suspect to get it. So a night off to get some much needed rest was in order.

I was half hoping that by saying he'd get the night off, WEB would have a stellar night. He did better, but it was by no means "stellar". WEB and I both got some sleep, and Hubby got a much needed good night's sleep. He looked better this morning. No more zombie eyes. I was rewarded with a quick shower, time to get ready, and then the 3 of us went and had some bagels and coffee for breakfast. Yum!

Friendship, marriage, and life is all about giving and taking. I'm not much of a taker, especially before WEB came along. Even still, I'm not much of a taker but if you offer, I probably won't say no. Ha Ha! A warm shower is hard to come by when you've got a crazy lightning speed crawling monkey!

The eyes have it

Are you pregnant? A new mom? Well, then it's time to invest in some super duper eye equipment! It all starts when you're pregnant, well at least it did for me. Towards the end of the 2nd trimester I was having trouble sleeping for a number of reasons. I was boiling hot all the time. I'd wake up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night. I got up to pee 32 times at night. Half the time I was 70% asleep until I was already on my way back from the bathroom! And then there's the huge belly that makes sleeping in any position quite a task, especially for me because I'm a belly sleeper.

Then you're a new mom. Everything is great and wonderful and you sit and stare at this adorable little bundle in disbelief. For the first week or two, the lack of sleep doesn't seem to make you look too zombie-rific, but around week 3 you might have the ugliest bags under your eyes. Here's where your troops come in...

Pick up an under eye cream. If you do nothing else to your face during the day, at least put on your eye cream and whatever face moisturizer you've got. I tried to put it on in the morning and at night at the very least. Sometimes I'd just leave it on the counter in the bathroom because, yes, I'm that lazy. But if it's sitting on the counter slapping me in the face, I'll remember to do it, even when I haven't slept in days.

Slowly but surely you stop seeing every hour of everyday and your baby starts to sleep more - more is a relative term...we're talking maybe a 4 hour stretch if you're lucky. You actually have time to shower and put on a 5 minute face of makeup. You need some under eye concealer. If all I had time to do was foundation, eye concealer, and a stroke of mascara, I felt a million times better. I didn't look like a zombie bride, or in this case, zombie mom, or at least not as much of one.

I have used quite a few different eye creams and concealers and I haven't found one that I'm particularly in love with, yet. I was using Bobbi Brown concealers and they worked well, but I felt like they sometimes became cakey. Not to mention now, they're just not in my budget. Right now I'm using Neutrogena Healthy Skin Eye Cream and Neutrogena Skin Soothing Under Eye Corrector, because I'm a frequent Target shopper and it's convenient. I'm not super thrilled with the results of the eye cream. If I am super diligent with using it at least twice a day, then I guess it's better than not using anything. I do like the corrector. I use Neutrogena foundation, so this goes nicely with the colors and is easy to apply. The container it comes in is nice. Just make sure you dab your eye cream and concealer when you apply it. Never swipe. And I find using some powder to set the concealer helps it last longer and doesn't let my eyeliner smear into the concealer. I think next time I need to restock on my cream, I'll try some Oil of Olay. I really like their day and night moisturizers and the makeup remover cloths. It's worth a shot!