I think Hubb's first Fathers' day was a good one. I got him a toaster oven (he's been coveting one since his brother moved out and took his with him) and let him sleep in. Rex was good almost all day, then skipped his afternoon nap, then was a terror all evening. He didn't want to go to sleep at bedtime, stayed up until 9:30, woke up at 2:00am, and wouldn't go back to sleep, even in bed with us. It's been so long since he slept in bed with us that now it's like play time when he comes to bed with us. So I was stuck sleeping with Rex on my chest downstairs from 2:30 until about 7 when Rex decided he could get up for the day.
Today he seemed like he was going to do well. He woke up and played happily. He wasn't too grumpy at all. Then he took a great nap at about 9:30 that lasted more than 2 hours! He woke up happy and played for a while. Then things started to go downhill. He got cranky, didn't want to eat, didn't want to play with his toys and was generally clingy. I was finally able to get him to take a nap at about 4:30 and he took a long nap again, but when he woke up he was still cranky. I can't tell if it's just one of his teeth coming in or if he may have an ear infection. It's so hard to tell sometimes. He did have a slight fever, and he was hitting the side of his face/head and tugging his ear. He also seemed to have a hard time swallowing. It could have been pain from the teeth or from the ear, and there is really no way to know for sure except to see the doctor. I will make the decision tomorrow whether or not to take him in. Maybe I will invest in one of those ear scope-y things so I can check things out myself in the future.
Other than that he's been doing really well. He still is refusing to stand up by himself, but we have been able to make him take steps when we're holding his hands. He doesn't like to, though, so he usually just tried to flop on his back or sink to his knees when we try to encourage him to walk.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
The past month.
Well, Rex has been practicing his crawling and pulling up. He's a pro at both of those but we're working on getting him to stand up by himself, so we can hopefully get him walking soon. Rex and I will be going to Florida in July to bring my oldest niece back home from her month long visit with her biological father. We'll be taking the trip with Grandpa Don, so it will be a fun family visit. We want him walking, at least some, so that when we stop to get stretch and get gas he can get out and burn some energy without having to crawl on the ground. Plus we want to make sure he takes his first steps when daddy is home (or at least in the same state) instead of so far away where he can't be there with him. The next month or so we'll be making sure we have the video on our phones ready to get to fast so we can catch those steps digitally to relive forever.
He was doing fantastic with sleeping until this week. Something has triggered him fighting sleep and crying when we put him down in his crib. It could be separation anxiety, but I really don't know. He has been taking naps in his crib most of the time for about a week now. He had to because it was really hot out, and his bedroom and our bedroom are the only rooms with air conditioning. So he was much more comfortable in his crib than he would have been sleeping on me.
He also has more teeth! He has his front teeth on top and bottom and then one more on top has poked through, but isn't all the way in yet and two on the bottom are poked through too. It's so crazy to look at my little boy with a mouth full of teeth! In just a few short days he'll be 10 months old and then only two months until a year old. It's just all going by so fast.
He's eating really well, too. He eats three meals of solids a day. Usually getting fruit in the morning with either yogurt or baby cereal. Then for lunch he gets a veggie and a fruit, and at dinner he'll get a veggie and fruit. He also gets some snacks during the day. Sometimes he eats the gerber puffs, sometimes he has little bites of my food (like broccoli with cheese sauce, he loves that) and sometimes I make him cut up fruit or give him some raisins or something like that. He's also had eggs and pancakes for breakfast. He really loves everything you give him. He'll eat green beans and peas as readily as he eats peaches and apples! It makes me feel good that he is going to have a nice broad base of tastes to build on as he gets older. Both Hubbs and I ate lots of veggies and fruits growing up, so I plan to continue that with our child/ren. Plus, now that Rex is eating more and more "table" food we're getting motivated to eat better. We want to make sure that when we're eating, and he's begging for our food (because he does. Like a dog. He goes from person to person and begs until he gets a bite. Then if he likes what he got, he'll stick around and beg for a while, then move on to the next person! It's funny to watch, but we'll be discouraging it pretty soon) that what we're eating is good for him. And when it's good for him, it's good for us. I haven't eaten fast food in a couple of weeks! I haven't lost as much weight as I hoped I would with cutting it out, but I guess just knowing that I am setting a better example for Rex is good enough for now.
We've been to the beach a couple of times already and Rex LOVES to play in the sand and in the water. He'll crawl in the sand near the water and the little waves will come in and he'll crawl out of the water, then back down to it. It's really adorable to watch him! This Summer is going to go very fast. Before you know it, Rex will be a toddler and as sad as I will be to not have my infant anymore, I'm so excited to experience all those firsts, for the first time, with him!
He was doing fantastic with sleeping until this week. Something has triggered him fighting sleep and crying when we put him down in his crib. It could be separation anxiety, but I really don't know. He has been taking naps in his crib most of the time for about a week now. He had to because it was really hot out, and his bedroom and our bedroom are the only rooms with air conditioning. So he was much more comfortable in his crib than he would have been sleeping on me.
He also has more teeth! He has his front teeth on top and bottom and then one more on top has poked through, but isn't all the way in yet and two on the bottom are poked through too. It's so crazy to look at my little boy with a mouth full of teeth! In just a few short days he'll be 10 months old and then only two months until a year old. It's just all going by so fast.
He's eating really well, too. He eats three meals of solids a day. Usually getting fruit in the morning with either yogurt or baby cereal. Then for lunch he gets a veggie and a fruit, and at dinner he'll get a veggie and fruit. He also gets some snacks during the day. Sometimes he eats the gerber puffs, sometimes he has little bites of my food (like broccoli with cheese sauce, he loves that) and sometimes I make him cut up fruit or give him some raisins or something like that. He's also had eggs and pancakes for breakfast. He really loves everything you give him. He'll eat green beans and peas as readily as he eats peaches and apples! It makes me feel good that he is going to have a nice broad base of tastes to build on as he gets older. Both Hubbs and I ate lots of veggies and fruits growing up, so I plan to continue that with our child/ren. Plus, now that Rex is eating more and more "table" food we're getting motivated to eat better. We want to make sure that when we're eating, and he's begging for our food (because he does. Like a dog. He goes from person to person and begs until he gets a bite. Then if he likes what he got, he'll stick around and beg for a while, then move on to the next person! It's funny to watch, but we'll be discouraging it pretty soon) that what we're eating is good for him. And when it's good for him, it's good for us. I haven't eaten fast food in a couple of weeks! I haven't lost as much weight as I hoped I would with cutting it out, but I guess just knowing that I am setting a better example for Rex is good enough for now.
We've been to the beach a couple of times already and Rex LOVES to play in the sand and in the water. He'll crawl in the sand near the water and the little waves will come in and he'll crawl out of the water, then back down to it. It's really adorable to watch him! This Summer is going to go very fast. Before you know it, Rex will be a toddler and as sad as I will be to not have my infant anymore, I'm so excited to experience all those firsts, for the first time, with him!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Has it really been 5 months?
Wow, so much has happened since the end of December.
Rex can crawl! He started as a sort of army crawl where he mostly pulled himself with his arms. That turned into a sort of inch worm move where he got up on his toes and leaned way forward and landed. it was funny to watch. Last week we noticed he is actually crawling now. on his hands and knees.
Rex can also pull himself up to standing! He started when were at my dads house (Grandpa Don) and has become a pro at it. He'll pull himself up on the TV stand and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and dance with the music.
I stopped breastfeeding when Rex was about 5 and a half months old because he went on a nursing strike. He preferred the bottle and I didn't have a good enough pump to keep him on breastmilk until he was over his strike, so we decided that 6 months was long enough! It's a lot of pressure off now too. I don't have to worry about making sure there is enough milk frozen to last Rex an evening away from me.
After the two teeth Rex got at Christmas-time, we were waiting and dealing with teething pain for months before his mouth got a little fuller. His two top teeth are now coming in. One is mostly broken through the other is just starting to poke out. It has made his mouth a dangerous place for fingers!!
We also failed at sleep training in the beginning! We didn't get Rex out of bed until March. And when we got him out of bed, he went to his crib. In the beginning, he would wake up several times a night still and need to come into bed with us to get back to sleep, but now he sleeps through the night most nights. He will go to sleep at 8 and sleep until around 7. Some nights he wakes up once, but mostly he sleeps all the way through the night.
Naps are still a little bit of a struggle, but I've learned to pick my battles! Rex will nap for a long time if we are laying together or I'm holding him, so most of the time I will give in to ensure that when he's awake, he's happy. When I try to force the issue and make him nap by himself he usually only gets about 45 minutes of sleep.
At his 9 month appointment Rex weighed 22 pounds 9 oz and was 29 inches tall! He's in 18 month clothes and size 3 shoes! How crazy!
Rex can crawl! He started as a sort of army crawl where he mostly pulled himself with his arms. That turned into a sort of inch worm move where he got up on his toes and leaned way forward and landed. it was funny to watch. Last week we noticed he is actually crawling now. on his hands and knees.
Rex can also pull himself up to standing! He started when were at my dads house (Grandpa Don) and has become a pro at it. He'll pull himself up on the TV stand and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and dance with the music.
I stopped breastfeeding when Rex was about 5 and a half months old because he went on a nursing strike. He preferred the bottle and I didn't have a good enough pump to keep him on breastmilk until he was over his strike, so we decided that 6 months was long enough! It's a lot of pressure off now too. I don't have to worry about making sure there is enough milk frozen to last Rex an evening away from me.
After the two teeth Rex got at Christmas-time, we were waiting and dealing with teething pain for months before his mouth got a little fuller. His two top teeth are now coming in. One is mostly broken through the other is just starting to poke out. It has made his mouth a dangerous place for fingers!!
We also failed at sleep training in the beginning! We didn't get Rex out of bed until March. And when we got him out of bed, he went to his crib. In the beginning, he would wake up several times a night still and need to come into bed with us to get back to sleep, but now he sleeps through the night most nights. He will go to sleep at 8 and sleep until around 7. Some nights he wakes up once, but mostly he sleeps all the way through the night.
Naps are still a little bit of a struggle, but I've learned to pick my battles! Rex will nap for a long time if we are laying together or I'm holding him, so most of the time I will give in to ensure that when he's awake, he's happy. When I try to force the issue and make him nap by himself he usually only gets about 45 minutes of sleep.
At his 9 month appointment Rex weighed 22 pounds 9 oz and was 29 inches tall! He's in 18 month clothes and size 3 shoes! How crazy!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Christmas 2010 and Sleep Training
What a circus! Rex met all sorts of new family and really got himself overwhelmed over the course of two days. Plus, of all times of the year, my baby boy got his FIRST TOOTH on Christmas Eve! And of course the second followed quickly. He pulled in a TON of loot from family and friends. Lots of toys, clothes and goodies! He really is a lucky boy to have so many people who love him so much! Overall it was a lot of celebrating and I think we've decided that next year we're going to try to cut back on some of the festivities and have a little bit quieter Christmas.
In the midst of all the crazy Christmas celebrations, we realized we needed to help Rex with getting to sleep. We really didn't know where to start so I went to the library and went crazy getting books. I got everything from the sternest Cry It Out (CIO) to the gentlest co-sleeping no cry methods. I was really just lost and looking for some sort of direction. Rex's sleeping habits are terrible and we have nobody to blame but ourselves. So this week we are starting to implement some training.
We've decided to go with a gentle CIO approach to helping Rex learn how to sleep better and by himself. The first rule we've learned in our research that ALL of the "experts" agree on is to create a routine. Some experts recommend a long routine that helps baby wind down slowly and get into the mood of sleeping and others say that as long as it's the same, it doesn't matter how long it takes. Our approach is somewhere in the middle! For bedtime we plan on a bath with calming baby bath in it, put on Jammies and then eat. Then we'll rock him and sing or read until he's sleepy and before he's completely asleep we'll put him in his Pack and Play in our room to fall asleep.
Our hope is that if he falls asleep by himself, he'll not be as afraid when he wakes up by himself and will be able to go back to sleep more easily without our coming to his rescue. Now, if Rex starts crying when we put him down in his PNP we will let him cry for 5 minute intervals until he falls asleep, or one hour. If he has cried for one hour with our 5 minute checks and hasn't gone to sleep, we'll pick him up and check to make sure he's comfortable and full and not hurting (those teeth get the best of him sometimes) and then rock him and cuddle him to make sure he feels okay. Then when he starts to get sleepy again, we'll put him back in his PNP to try the process again. We don't want to deal with the extra cuddling, but who knows what Rex will do when we start this? Ideally, this will only take a few days to really let him know that it's bed time and he'll start to get in the groove and it will get really easy to put him to bed.
The next issue we're dealing with is his naps. Sometimes he will nap just fine several times throughout the day, and those days are like heaven. Other days he will refuse to nap altogether! Then there are days where he'll take an hour long nap in the morning and then won't nap for the rest of the day without sleeping in my arms. We are hoping to train him to sleep regularly during the day as well as during the night. So I'm going to start making sure we wake up by 9 every morning. I'll let Rex eat and we'll hang out for a while and then I'll take him upstairs and rock him for a few minutes then put him down for a nap by 11. Hopefully that will start a positive chain reaction! I'm still doing research and trying to figure out a good schedule for him during the day. I'm going to try to be very watchful and make sure I pay attention to his cues to see when he's really sleepy and ready to go down. Hopefully within a week or so I'll be able figure out the best timing to put him down for naps and we'll have a real routine going for us.
Wish us luck as we start to train Rex to sleep by himself and for long enough to keep himself resting.
In the midst of all the crazy Christmas celebrations, we realized we needed to help Rex with getting to sleep. We really didn't know where to start so I went to the library and went crazy getting books. I got everything from the sternest Cry It Out (CIO) to the gentlest co-sleeping no cry methods. I was really just lost and looking for some sort of direction. Rex's sleeping habits are terrible and we have nobody to blame but ourselves. So this week we are starting to implement some training.
We've decided to go with a gentle CIO approach to helping Rex learn how to sleep better and by himself. The first rule we've learned in our research that ALL of the "experts" agree on is to create a routine. Some experts recommend a long routine that helps baby wind down slowly and get into the mood of sleeping and others say that as long as it's the same, it doesn't matter how long it takes. Our approach is somewhere in the middle! For bedtime we plan on a bath with calming baby bath in it, put on Jammies and then eat. Then we'll rock him and sing or read until he's sleepy and before he's completely asleep we'll put him in his Pack and Play in our room to fall asleep.
Our hope is that if he falls asleep by himself, he'll not be as afraid when he wakes up by himself and will be able to go back to sleep more easily without our coming to his rescue. Now, if Rex starts crying when we put him down in his PNP we will let him cry for 5 minute intervals until he falls asleep, or one hour. If he has cried for one hour with our 5 minute checks and hasn't gone to sleep, we'll pick him up and check to make sure he's comfortable and full and not hurting (those teeth get the best of him sometimes) and then rock him and cuddle him to make sure he feels okay. Then when he starts to get sleepy again, we'll put him back in his PNP to try the process again. We don't want to deal with the extra cuddling, but who knows what Rex will do when we start this? Ideally, this will only take a few days to really let him know that it's bed time and he'll start to get in the groove and it will get really easy to put him to bed.
The next issue we're dealing with is his naps. Sometimes he will nap just fine several times throughout the day, and those days are like heaven. Other days he will refuse to nap altogether! Then there are days where he'll take an hour long nap in the morning and then won't nap for the rest of the day without sleeping in my arms. We are hoping to train him to sleep regularly during the day as well as during the night. So I'm going to start making sure we wake up by 9 every morning. I'll let Rex eat and we'll hang out for a while and then I'll take him upstairs and rock him for a few minutes then put him down for a nap by 11. Hopefully that will start a positive chain reaction! I'm still doing research and trying to figure out a good schedule for him during the day. I'm going to try to be very watchful and make sure I pay attention to his cues to see when he's really sleepy and ready to go down. Hopefully within a week or so I'll be able figure out the best timing to put him down for naps and we'll have a real routine going for us.
Wish us luck as we start to train Rex to sleep by himself and for long enough to keep himself resting.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Coming up to Rex's first Christmas
So, as we approach Rex's first Christmas I realize I've been VERY busy! LOL. Rex has been growing so fast and is so big. He's 17 pounds and 26 inches long and 4 months old. He wears 6-9 month clothes comfortably! He's learned so many things. He loves to grab things and put them in his mouth, he loves to play with his toys and he really enjoys being in his exersaucer!
Cloth diapering has been going so well! We really do love it. We made a bunch of cloth wipes and we really love using them. They are terry on one side and flannel on the other. They clean up so much more than the disposable ones. Rex has outgrown all of his original covers so we only have 3 that fit him perfectly. We can use the larges we have, they are just a little baggy, but he's growing so fast it seems pointless to buy more just to have him outgrow them in a month or less!! Now that the sun is pretty much gone all the time though the diapers all seem dingy. I'm going to have to find ways to sun them without putting them outside. Because it's simply too cold for that!
The Holidays that Rex has had so far have been great. Halloween he was a cloud. He was absolutely adorable! Thanksgiving he wore a cute outfit that Gam Gams got him. He had a big ole turkey on his butt! He's got a couple of Christmas outfits too. One has a reindeer on the butt!!! The other makes him look like a little elf! I am so excited to continue on this journey of learning and teaching! It's been so rewarding and exhausting already and I can't believe how fast it goes!
Cloth diapering has been going so well! We really do love it. We made a bunch of cloth wipes and we really love using them. They are terry on one side and flannel on the other. They clean up so much more than the disposable ones. Rex has outgrown all of his original covers so we only have 3 that fit him perfectly. We can use the larges we have, they are just a little baggy, but he's growing so fast it seems pointless to buy more just to have him outgrow them in a month or less!! Now that the sun is pretty much gone all the time though the diapers all seem dingy. I'm going to have to find ways to sun them without putting them outside. Because it's simply too cold for that!
The Holidays that Rex has had so far have been great. Halloween he was a cloud. He was absolutely adorable! Thanksgiving he wore a cute outfit that Gam Gams got him. He had a big ole turkey on his butt! He's got a couple of Christmas outfits too. One has a reindeer on the butt!!! The other makes him look like a little elf! I am so excited to continue on this journey of learning and teaching! It's been so rewarding and exhausting already and I can't believe how fast it goes!
Friday, December 10, 2010
final2
Family Snowfall Red Christmas
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Monday, November 29, 2010
Christmas Card 2010
Classic Lime 5x7 folded card
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