all night long

Yea, 3 days now we are 'sleeping' through the night. The squeaker has decided that he eats enough during the day to make it until morning (like 6:30 or so) to eat. The ideal situation would be not waking up during that 'sleep' time... but we can't expect to have everything! He wakes several times in the morning (maybe a habit) but doesn't eat... ahhhh! Also, that 9 hours of not eating comes at a price: fussiness for about 2 hours before he goes to bed for the night... which just happens to be as we are putting his big brother down for the night. Oh well, it will work itself out eventually, I am sure of it!

Christmas pics

I was really really really bad at taking pictures on Christmas. And once I figure out how to work dropshots.com, I will have some video for your viewing pleasure (don't hold your breath). Anyway, here are a couple of pics from Christmas morning. i don't have any pictures of christmas afternoon when Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt and Uncle were here. :( Bad picture-taking mommy!

My kid's a genius!

The Little Man was playing with model magic (from Crayola) and he rolled out some snakes all by himself. Then, he placed them on the table to make shapes. I asked him what he made, and he looked at it, then said, "A House"... I think he might be the smartest 2 year old around!

Little Man and Squeaker

3 days to go...

Exciting times ahead. We are looking forward to a present-filled Christmas. We have had no difficulty covering up our tree skirt with presents. (and Santa hasn't even come yet!) Packages have arrived daily at our house from loving grandparents, aunts and uncles, and dear friends... We really have a lot of gifts to open. It is a good think that Daddy's family is coming over Christmas day rather than us traveling. If we waited until all the presents are open, it might take a day and a half. (especially since the Little Man must play with each present as it is opened!)

I just hope we are well by then. The Little Man has been sick all week and is getting stir crazy. He is rambunctious and mischievous and full of energy. I envy those parents with kids who are wiped out when sick, because that certainly doesn't happen here! Of course, it could be the medication's doing... who knows. I am afraid that we are going to have to head back to the pediatrician for the 3rd time this week, since his wheezing is really not improving... and we are tired of waking him at night to do his nebulizer -- just when he started sleeping all night again (after taking the paci away)! Anyway, as long as it doesn't turn into RSV or pneumonia, we should be okay.

*yes, the tree is slightly crooked*

sleep anyone?

Well, yesterday we had to skip playgroup cuz the little man was running a fever, snotty and coughing like he smokes a pack a day... He wanted to be held all day, but so did the squeaker... that was until they both slept for a couple hours... at the same time... Since the squeaker does nto usually take long daytime naps, i was not expecting this free time, and probably would have been smart if i had taken a nap. I, however, was sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for either one of them to wake up at any time. Well, once they both woke up, the both wanted to be held all afternoon again. Daddy couldn't have come home soon enough for my liking.

Anyway, the squeaker was up all night eating, and the little man was up all night coughing. It is now 6:30 am and we are all up for the day (not really liking this, however) and since the little man still has a fever, we are headed to the doctor. :( fun times all around. I am not sure how well I do on 3 hours sleep... guess we'll find out. I wish it was my birthday, then i could blow out my candles and wish for 2 sets of arms and an extra lap.

Happy Holidays

Before we put up a tree, we had a pros and cons list going... and in the end, how much damage could a 2-year old really do with a tree? Apparently Daddy rode his trike into the Christmas tree one year... but, we don't have trikes in the house, so no worries there. :) We went with the tree despite our list of cons, because there were WAY more pros... like this one:



What you don't see is that all the ornaments were placed on one of 3 branches. We don't win any awards for symmetry this year. :) This was like 45 min of entertainment, right here. Of course, it has since been several hours of entertainment of Mommy explaining that we look at the pretty decorations and ornaments but we can't take them off until after Santa Claus comes on Christmas. I am not sure if he just enjoys hearing this over and over, or if he is being 2, but it gets less entertaining each time. :)

Quick update

So, it took 5 days... that's it, 5 days. Starting with Saturday's nap, we are back to normal. The Little Man is back to 2 hour(ish) naps and sleeping through the night. We are so proud! He hasn't even asked for the paci and will tell you that he is a big boy and that they are in the trash. Yeah for big boys!!!

The Squeaker is doing great. We had some feeding issues a couple weeks ago that went away like magic one day - and for fear that I would jinx myself, I haven't commented on the turnaround. But, we had a couple bad days this weekend and we are back to normal now -- which includes sleeping like 6 hours (or more) at night. :) He is apparently growing, however, and we are eating every 2 hours during the day. that really limits productivity around our house!

Time to change diapers, I guess.

Sleep... Need. More. Sleep...

So far, the paci has been gone for all of 3 days and the Little Man hasn't asked for them at all. He goes to bed with a little bit of fussing, but all in all, is pretty good. The only problem is that he wakes up at night or early in the morning and can't get back to sleep. So, instead of the 7 week old waking up (which he isn't for the most part), the 2 year old is! We just can't win. We are currently in a downward spiral of being overtired and that making it hard to get to sleep... I hope that resolves itself ASAP.

Lack of sleep makes you do crazy things

I am just going to jump straight to the crazy things, and skip the lack of sleep part -- wait, no I am not, I need to vent! So, the Squeaker, who is 6 weeks old, has been doing such a wonderful job of sleeping... from day 1. He usually sleeps between 4-6 hours in a row at night. 2 nights ago, it was 7! Yeah for the Squeaker!!! (and for his parents who were more well rested yesterday than usual). We should have known that the next night wouldn't be as wonderful. i am not sure why, but our feeding schedule was off just enough to mess me up completely. I fed the squeaker at 1 and, since he has to be upright for 45 min or so after he eats, I ended up sleeping upright on the couch until 5:45am. That was not my intention - I had asked Daddy to wake me at 2:30 so I could put squeaker down and get some real sleep... that didn't happen, for some reason... :( I fed squeaker again around 6 (yea for 15 min of horizontal sleep) and was pretty much up for the day at that point. Oh, I take that back. I slept from 7:00-8:00 uninterrupted. woo hoo. So, that whole paragraph was just about our youngest child.

Our oldest, the Little Man, decided to wake up every couple hours (he is worse than an infant) crying for his paci. Now, granted he is 2 and still requires our assistance for most things, I feel that he is capable of looking around in his bed for his paci if it falls out... it is usually sitting right next to him! After the 5th time getting up with him, I had decided that the paci was more of a hinderance than a help at this point. (yah, i know, i am smart, i have an advanced degree so that i can figure these things out.) The Little man has been super cranky for a week and a half, but shows no symptoms of being sick. I did feel a molar coming in, so i have been giving him tylenol periodically and assuming it is teething. I figured, if he is miserable anyway, and we are tired anyway, and we are getting up repeatedly anyway, why not... GET RID OF THE PACI?!?!

If we were smart parents, we would have done this long ago, but seeing as how we are not, and the advance degree didn't cover pacifier use, we didn't. Tonight was the first night. We have been talking about getting rid of them for a while (like a month) - "One day, we are going to get rid of those pacis and you will get to sleep in your big boy bed without them!" All these comments were taken in without protest. Tonight during dinner, we had the same discussion and talked about throwing them in the trash and maybe using something else to replace it - like another blanket. The Little Man thought it was a great idea. So, after his bath and jammies, he climbed in bed grabbed his paci and sucked on it all the way to the trash, where he didn't need any coaxing to take it out and place it in. On the way back to his room, we talked about how the trash man would come in the morning and the pacis would be gone, but that it was okay, cuz he was a big boy. this was greated with, "yah, i a big boy". We went into his Little Brother's room and stole one of those animal head loveys to take to bed instead. He got into bed and was quiet for like 20 min - we thought we were home free. After about 30-45 min of crying and needing extra hugs and time with mommy, he has been quiet for like an hour! I think we are good! woo hoo, the paci is GONE! and the trash man is coming tomorrow morning and we can't get the pacis out of the trash. Mommy and Daddy won't be tempted either. Baby brother has pacis, however, so that might be a future challenge... we'll see. :)