Christmas

I have been looking forward to this Christmas for many months now! I was excited to have time off from work, to see Evan celebrate it for the first time, and of course, to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

We started by going to my mother-in-law's house for cookie decorating and exchanging on the 23rd. I made gingerbread men and women for the first time. To tell the truth, I wasn't too happy with how they turned out...they were really hard. I also tried to buy a gingerbread cut out, but couldn't find one at the grocery store. (I mentioned to Paul that I would just make Christmas trees since I had that cutter, but when I came back from going to the bathroom there were two cookie cutters on the counter. One was a gingerbread man and the other a woman!) Anyway, we had a lot of fun eating, decorating, and exchanging cookies!

Christmas Eve was also spent at my mother-in-laws. We had a Bailey's toast, some delicious steak for dinner, and apple cobbler for dessert. Evan really loved playing with his grandma and aunts. We also opened up our Secret Santa* gifts and other family gifts that night. *Since there are 4 children in Paul's family and 4 significant others, we do a Secret Santa so that we only have to buy one gift. It works out quite nicely!

The next morning was Christmas! Evan and I woke up at 5:30 and started to make cinnamon rolls. Paul, Evan, and I opened our presents to each other early in the morning. My sister, brother-in-law, and best friend came over for breakfast. We had a yummy French toast breakfast and opened presents. The cinnamon rolls didn't work out...AGAIN! It later took my sister and I some time to realize that we had the wrong kind of yeast! We had used active yeast, not rapid-rising...NO WONDER!!

We then headed to my sister-in-laws home for Christmas dinner. They served a "traditional" dinner with turkey and all the fixings. I, however, was unable to enjoy dinner with everyone. I was upstairs trying to put a sick, tired, and fussy baby down for a nap. During my time upstairs, I told myself that I wasn't leaving until he got some sleep. Therefore, that meant that I ate about 30 minutes after everyone else had finished. Even the dishes had been cleaned while I was away! In the end, the food was still delicious and I'm thankful that I was able to get Evan some sleep that he much needed.

Evan really loved the wrapping paper on all the presents.

Christmas mess!

My brother-in-law and Paul trying to put together Evan's activity bouncer.Pooped out!My big boy on Christmas...sitting up on his own!Paul, Evan, and I had a wonderful Christmas and we are looking forward to another week off of work together as a family!

An interesting day

Today was an interesting day.

I woke up excited for the day to begin. It's my first "official" day of break, my sister was coming over to visit and make cinnamon buns from scratch with me for the first time, and Evan had a well baby visit.

The morning started off great. Evan was happy and playful, fell asleep quickly for a nap, but it only lasted about 45 minutes.

Paul arrived just before 10:00 so that we could drive together to the pediatrician's office. He fell asleep in the car on the way there, which lasted about 20 minutes before we had to undress him. Evan's usual nap time is not during this time. While there, Evan was a trooper. He stared at the Dr. while getting examined. Evan now weighs 17 lbs., 11 oz (50th %) and is 27 1/2 inches (90th %). This also explains why he's quickly starting to outgrow some 9 month clothing. He was given 3 shots and an oral vaccine today too. I was quite relieved that his cries lasted a short time. I tried comfort nursing him but he wanted to play with his daddy instead.

Evan was fine on the ride home until we were about 4 miles away. He started getting fussy since it was time for lunch.

I tried getting him down for his second nap of the day when my sister arrived. She came in to say hi and Evan was wide awake again ready to play with his Auntie.

My son likes to eat people.

He sat in his Bumbo as we started to make the cinnamon rolls. We could tell Evan was ready for his nap when he started chewing extremely slowly on his toy and staring at the ground. I tried getting him down again, but no luck. He finally took a 30 minute nap at 2:00.

After that, we noticed that our dough wasn't rising. It made me remember why I have never attempted to make homemade cinnamon rolls, or any other type of bread...I hate yeast. We came to the conclusion that our milk wasn't at the right temperature and why the dough didn't rise. First attempt at cinnamon rolls = FAILED.


Evan played a little more with Emma, but was still super tired from the short nap before. I tried getting him down again and he slept for 10 minutes.

At this point, Evan was getting very fussy and tired. I decided to sit with him on my computer chair and just roll back and forth. He sat there staring at my toes (which he loves to see) and started falling asleep. I then tried to cradle him to help him go to sleep and it backfired...he got fussy again instead. I placed him on my chest and continued to roll around in the chair with my toes in his view. He fell asleep. The nap on my chest lasted about 15 minutes.

Paul came home from work to a cranky, fussy, completely drained and worn out mommy. And baby! The wonderful husband that he is took our little boy, changed him into his jammies, checked his temperature, and gave him Tylenol while I nursed him to sleep. He's now been sleeping for two hours...


The last round of immunizations gave him his first fever and this round made him fussy. I'm am so thankful that his next well baby visit is immunization free!

Hopefully the next time I try to make cinnamon rolls they work!

Six months

Evan has celebrated his first half-birthday!

My little boy is growing so quickly! He's done so much this past month:

1. Sleeping through the night. He sleeps from about 7:30 at night until 5 or 5:30. Occasionally Evan will wake for a short feeding between 3 and 4.

2. Sitting up unsupported. We still place him in his Bumbo chair, but are spending much more time on the floor sitting up.

3. Rolling over. Evan still really only does this at night. We'll wake up due to him crying because he's flipped himself. He doesn't really like sleeping on his tummy all that much right now.

4. Pulling himself up...kind of. If you put Evan close to his activity mat or swing, he'll hold onto the bars and pull himself up (while you hold him...not entirely on his own.) He like to bounce up and down as he holds on.

5. Laughing and squealing. Yes, he's been doing this for a while. Now however, it much louder and more high pitched. It also seems to happen more often.

6. Solid foods. Evan was exclusively breastfed for the past six months (with a day of formula while he had jaundice at the hospital when he was born.) Today, two days after his six month birthday, he had sweet potatoes for the first time. We decided he was ready since he has been trying to take my food out of my hands for the past few days. I've decided to make Evan's baby food and I'm so glad that I did. We now have sweet potato puree to last at least a month and it cost us about $.75. During the feeding Evan really enjoyed playing with his spoon. He wasn't so sure about the sweet potato. I was able to get some into his mouth with the spoon and my finger. Evan was quite successful in getting it all over himself.



8. Zoolights. We attended our first trip to Zoolights as a family of three. Paul and I had fun meeting up with friends and Evan had fun sleeping the whole time.


These past six months have passed us by so quickly. I know that the next six will go by just as fast. I still cry when I look back at his "baby" pictures from the day he was born. Every now and then, I cry when I'm nursing him and stroking his baby soft arms, legs, or touching his hair. Even now I look at his face and see him as such a "big boy" and I can see how much he's changed since birth. I am so thankful to be blessed with such a wonderful little boy. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Taking a break and ready for one!

After a very LONG and stressful week, we've chosen to take a break from Dr. Ferber and his method. We now have a much more cheerful and talkative baby who now can sleep through the night and get himself to sleep after being nursed and rocked until he's ALMOST asleep. Evan did learn how to soothe himself through all of the tears and screaming, but it wasn't getting better. Paul and I thought it best not to continue. Now that doesn't mean we might not try again. But for now...I think everyone on our household is much relieved. Especially Evan!

It seems that the day after we started Ferberizing him, he started making this sad face. Coincidence?!?


We are also looking forward to a wonderful Christmas break! My vacation starts on Monday and Paul has an entire week off from Christmas Eve to New Years. The three of us went and purchased our Christmas tree and then Paul and I decorated once Evan had gone to bed.

On Sunday, we went and visited Paul's grandmother. She just loves when Evan comes to see her. He wasn't too sure about her at first, but warmed up towards the end of our visit.


And to finish the post, a video of my happy little baby!

What camera?

I've been a bad mommy and haven't taken many photos since Thanksgiving weekend. Here's what I did take a picture of...

a tired Daddy.

The last time we took photos of Evan in the bath was his first time in the tub when he was a month old. Paul decided to take these tonight. Evan LOVES playing with the rubber duckies during his bath. He gets rather angry if he doesn't have them.

Why is he SO STINKIN' CUTE!?

Sleep

I haven't posted too much in the past week or so. It's been crazy, as life always is. After much talking with Paul and discussing our options, we decided to start using the Ferber Method with Evan.

Typically, our nights went like this: bath, pajamas, story, nurse, burp, nurse, sleep, put in crib, wake up an hour later, try to get back to sleep, play, nurse more, burp, nurse, sleep, put in crib, wake an hour later, nurse to sleep, put in crib, wake three hours later, bring to our bed, nurse some more, fall asleep nursing (both Evan and myself), boob falls out, wake, try to shush to sleep, nurse, sleep, both wake after I move to find a more comfortable position at the bottom of the bed, shush, nurse, sleep, wake a few hours later, shush, nurse, sleep, alarm goes off to get up for work.

So Saturday, the 5th, was the big day. We went to Borders to buy Dr. Ferber's book and read it that day. As night came, we gave Evan a bath, put on his pajamas, nursed, and read two books, gave him his goodnight kisses, laid him in his crib for bed, and turned on his lullaby music. We left the room and with a few moments, the crying began...for Evan and me.

Paul and I decided to take turns that night to check on him, soothe him, and let him know that we were still here. He cried for an hour that night. It had to be the most painful thing that I have done so far as a parent. (Even now, 4 days later, I can still hear his most desperate cry in my head and how much it hurt me to hear and see him wanting so much to be comforted and held and shushed to sleep. I still have a heavy heart and cry when I think about it.) That night I couldn't stop asking Paul if it made us bad parents and if we were doing the right thing for him. He woke again at midnight and cried again for an hour while Paul went in every few minutes to comfort him. I couldn't do it. I would hear him cry from our room and watch him on the monitor. All I could do was cry. The rest of the night, I heard Evan make a few noises, but he didn't wake until 7 am.

The next day, he didn't sleep for his first nap. We decided to go to the park and take Layne for a walk. As we were heading back to the car, Evan made grunting noises and fell asleep in the stroller. He was able to take a second nap later in the day. That night, Evan cried for 15 minutes, made his angry/yelling/grunting noises and fell asleep.

On Monday, my mom wasn't too happy with us. Although she doesn't agree with our choice, she knows she has to follow it. (I know you love your grandson and you hate to hear him cry, Mom!) Monday evening was the best by far. Evan was put to bed, cried for 4 minutes, quieted down, played with his feet and his comfort cross, then went to bed after 8 minutes....silently!

Tonight, Evan was put into his crib, cried for a few minutes, then immediately began his noises and fell asleep after about 25 minutes (I think we may have put him down just a few minutes too early!) He's now happily sleeping in his crib.

Since we started, once Evan has initially fallen asleep around 7:00 pm, he sleeps until 3:00 am without a single waking. He gets fed at 3:00 and put back into bed where he falls asleep by 4 and wakes again between 6 and 7 am. What a difference the past few nights have been.

Even though Paul and I are having withdrawals from having Evan in our bed and having him fall asleep in our arms, we also are thinking about what he's gaining:

- GREAT sleep at night
- being able to soothe himself when he wakes
- reduced spit up at night (my side of the bed would constantly be covered in baby spit up from nursing so much at night)

I always said that I would never be able to let my baby cry himself to sleep, but I have. I never thought I would co-sleep either, but I have. I never thought I would exclusively breastfeed for *almost* 6 months, but I have.

I guess that as a parent, you never really know what you'll do in a situation until it arises. All you can hope is that in the end you've made the right choice.

Evan, I love you more than I could ever say. Sleep tight and I'll see you the morning.

Thanksgiving and a birthday

There are several reasons why I enjoy being a teacher, but there's one why I particularly enjoy my district: they give us the Wednesday of Thanksgiving off! I had FIVE blissful days to spend at home with my baby boy and four days with my hubby.

Wednesday was spent meeting up with my former guard student, Whitney. She hadn't met Evan since his birth and it was about time they had a proper introduction! We met up at Starbucks and Evan had a blast playing with her. I think I've found a new sitter!

Thanksgiving day was spent at my mother-in-law's home with a traditional dinner, including some delicious candied sweet potatoes (my favorite). We played Apples to Apples with the family too.

The next day, we headed to my parent's house in Maricopa for chiles rellenos and posole. SO GOOD!!! Evan had a blast playing with my parents...as always. My sister and brother-in-law were in Hawaii for the week and we missed having them there.

Saturday was another day at home for me while Paul went to a friend's house to watch the ASU/UofA game. Our nephew, Benjamin, had his first birthday on Sunday. We went to Paul's sister's home to celebrate with family and friends. Benjamin really enjoyed his birthday cake and presents while his sister, Mara, loved the bounce house. Happy 1st birthday, Benjamin!

Blowing out the candles with Mom.

Meghan, Ben, Evan, and Paul

Ben thought it would be great to wipe his hands on Meghan's face.

Mara bouncing around.Evan "driving" around in Ben's birthday present. Look at that red hair!