Night 2

Last night, after completing our bedtime routine, I rocked Caleb until he was able to wind down. For some reason, it took him awhile to wind down, but when he did, he sat calmly in my arms and started humming along with me. I then put him in his crib and he went to sleep. He slept for an hour. We let him cry for 25 minutes. It was an agonizing 25 minutes. Jeff then went in and rocked him and cuddled him and loved him. He put him back in the bed. As Jeff was closing the door, Caleb started to cry a bit but stopped before it had been three minutes. For the next twenty minutes, he would sort of whimper/cry every couple of minutes or so for about a minute. Finally, he was quiet.

He slept for three hours. He then woke up again, Jeff brought him in bed with us and I nursed him. He slept for an hour again and then woke up crying. We decided that it would be best to put him in his own bed, which we did. Jeff held him for a little while to calm him before placing him in his bed. He turned his sleep sheep on and then Jeff left the room. He cried for less than two minutes before he fell asleep. He then slept for four hours.

So, overall last night, Caleb cried far less than he did the night before. It was still heartbreaking to listen to him cry and I kept wanting to run in there to rescue him, but Jeff reminded me that this would be good for him. I still did not feel well last night. In fact, I slept horribly, even though he slept better. I was so afraid that I wouldn't hear him cry if he woke up. And I guess I just had so much on my mind, I don't know. I was also really uncomfortable with muscle aches and a terrible headache, so I am grateful to Jeff for his patience with me and Caleb and for taking care of both of us.

Hopefully, tonight will be even better and there will be even less crying. Thanks for praying for us, they have definitely been counted along side our own prayers and we recognize the blessings that come from them. :)

Sleep

This is Caleb. He is a sleepy boy very often. Last night we decided to start letting him "cry-it-out". It was awful. I had always been very adamantly against this method. But, Caleb is not sleeping enough. I don't think he really knows how to sleep well and he can't put himself back to sleep. Honestly, I would not mind if he woke up once to nurse in the middle of the night or even twice. But, he wakes up several times throughout the night and there are several times when he wakes up and will stay up for hours. The other day, he woke up around 2:30 am. I nursed him thinking he would go back to sleep. Because even though his pediatrician says that he does not need to be eating at night anymore, sometimes it's so much easier to just nurse him so that I can go back to sleep. On this occasion, though, he did not go back to sleep. Jeff went and slept in the other room and Caleb basically played in the bed beside me. I am not really sure what time he fell asleep. I fell asleep around 5am. The next thing I remember is that Jeff came into the bedroom and got Caleb at 6:30. He was up and playing (and pulling my hair). If Caleb did go back to sleep, he didn't sleep long. This happens so often, that I am really starting to become even more concerned with his sleeping habits. It's not like he sleeps the day away either. There will often be times where he will take two 20 or 30 minute naps and that's it.

So you see, something just isn't right about this. And since Caleb has turned 10 months old now and Jeff has been wanting to try to let Caleb cry it out and the doctor suggested it and I read a book ("Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child") I finally relented.

We have a regular routine with Caleb that we follow each night: bath or lotion and pjs, nursing, song, scripture, song, prayer. This is how it's been for awhile. Then I decided that after prayer instead of just putting him in his bed after prayer, I would rock him while we listened to his primary songs. So, after all of that, I rock him in the rocking chair in his room for awhile. He quiets down and starts humming himself to sleep and eventually, he's relaxed enough where I can put him in his crib and he will go right to sleep. As long as we follow his routine, he goes to sleep. It's great. I'm glad that we've been able to figure out how to help him get to sleep at night.

The problem is that he does not stay asleep. Lately he's been waking up two hours after going down. Sometimes he'll make it to three hours. This kind of sleeping is not good for any of us. I am often so tired lately that my memory fails me and I forget things that I need to get done or I am not motivated to get things done. Caleb is pleasant a lot of the time, but then he does get really fussy on occasion and it can be hard to console him when he gets so overtired. Jeff has to drive long distances and drive a lot and so often he'll just go sleep in another room. I would be fine if Caleb even gave us consistent 5 hour stretches at a time. I'm not saying that he has to sleep through the night and not wake until morning (though I wouldn't complain if that's how it ended up). It would just be nice to sleep for several hours at a time. And that if he did wake up, we could quickly get him to go back to sleep instead of those nights where he's up for hours.

So, back to last night. I was so sick. I felt miserable. Which maybe was a blessing. I hated hearing Caleb cry. Jeff would check on him in increasing increments of five minutes. So if he last went in after 20 minutes, then he would next go in at 25 minutes. I am not sure how long Caleb ended up crying before he went to sleep because I fell asleep, but I think it was at least an hour before I fell asleep. It's really heartbreaking and I definitely shed a few tears and I just kept thinking how awful this whole thing is. And I just had to keep reminding myself that I was trying to help him. Oh, I hope this helps him. It's one of the hardest things I've had to do. Of course, one night isn't going to be enough time, so we'll have to do it more and I just don't know how I am going to handle it. I'll have to take a shower or something.

Caleb woke up around 11:30 or so and I nursed him and we both slept on the sofa until almost 5 when he woke up again and I put him in his crib, turned on the hair dryer for a minute and then his sleep sheep and then he went to sleep. He slept there for about an hour and a half and then Jeff brought him into our bed.

We really have tried a lot of other things first, sleeping on the floor in his room, letting him sleep in our bed, hairdryer, routines, nursing, not nursing, rocking, singing, everything I can think of. Hopefully, he'll learn to sleep soon- I don't know if I'll be able to manage if this lasts longer than a week.

So friends, if you feel so inclined, please pray for us. We pray all of the time about this very issue, in the morning, at night, family prayer, couple prayer, personal prayer, and even in the middle of the night. We just haven't found what works for us yet. Hopefully, this will (or else I will feel terribly guilty for allowing my sweet boy to cry for so long).

P.S. The good news is that he took a 2 hour nap for the past couple of days. So we're moving in the right direction. :)

10 Months!!

My baby boy is starting to slowly leave babyhood and turn into a toddler. It just seems to be happening all too fast. He turned 10 months old on Wednesday. How did we get here. In just 2 months, he'll be a whole year. Today, I was watching the news- which I hardly ever do and it mentioned that it's been a year since the Royal Wedding and since Osama Bin Laden was killed. I can't believe those things were just a year ago. The same way I can't believe my baby boy is ten months old already. And yet, it feels like he's been with us forever.

This month has been exciting with learning new skills and visiting friends and going on trips.  I have now been home with Caleb full time for 2 whole months. I am loving that I get to be home with him. It truly is a blessing. Caleb is such a wonderful boy. He is so full of energy and loves to be outside and explore new places and he is soooo cuddly and such a mama's boy which I love (and I think he knows it). I just love him so much!

Here are some pictures from this month:

At the beginning of the month, he gained confidence with standing.

Playing with colored water during one of our "Exploration" times. 

My happy boy.

When I need to get chores done, this is what he does- He grabs onto my pants legs and walks around with me. It's super cute!

First Easter egg hunt- please excuse the coloring- I didn't have the settings right. Oops.

Duck Love.

Doggy kisses.

Baby goose kisses.

First time to the beach.

At the glass shop- see previous post. (Caleb also thought he was interesting.)

Though he doesn't sleep well at night, he sleeps well in the car. 

Visiting Maggie and Ben.

We decided to let Caleb try some sour powder (from some gum). 

Going in for his first taste.

Haha!

Just look at that sour face (P.S. I need to learn how to do like a little collage or something then I could post less pictures).

Caleb likes to stick his tongue out like this. 

By the end of the month, he has learned to stand on his own!

He kept pushing this old statistics CD around and looking at me through it. So funny!!

He started trying to take his shirts off.

I don't have a picture of it, but he only managed to get one arm out. Sorry for the blurriness.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures from the month.

This one's pretty cute, too. 

Caleb has started to enjoy books so much more lately. He loves being read to and will just sit and listen and look at the pages while you read. 

Still one of his favorite things to do. 

I just love this face!

Just took this picture to show how light his hair as gotten. 

Mr. Bright Eyes!

 This next series of photos is from his actually 10 month birthday... I kept trying to get him to look at the camera. He was just too interested in what was going on around him.

This month:

- Caleb has gained an increased interest in books. 

- Has grown two teeth (actually one right before 9 months and one right after he turned nine months).

- Is growing a third tooth on top.

- Has learned to stand on his own.

- Has taken his first step (He's currently up to five consecutive steps).

- Has taken his first vacation (to Massachusetts).

- Celebrated his first Easter.

- Crawls super fast now!

- Loves to explore new spaces.

- Dances.

- Started playing "peek-a boo". 

- Understands simple commands, such as "Stop" and "Come here", and "Eat". 

- Jeff is convinced that he says "dada" and means it. 

- He does babble a lot and his newest sounds is "Eeee!". 

- He understands counting.

- He plays, "I'm gonna get you" and will crawl away from you while you crawl after him. 

- He tries to drink the bath water when taking a bath. 

According to our at-home measurements, Caleb is still 28 inches long and weighs 22.6 lbs. (Which means if it is accurate, he has not grown since his 9 month appointment). 

He is just as sweet as ever and we absolutely love him.